This time there are significant challenges to be addressed if we are strong foundations for the future. The proposed investment programme is the largest investment we have ever made in our city. It includes fixing the pipes, climate change, a viable social housing, waste infrastructure, transport, arts and culture and recovering from COVID-19.

Challenges

The city faces some big challenges:

Infrastructure		Housing and Urban Development
Much of our infrastructure, particularly three waters and transport networks, requires additional investment to make it more reliable and to meet the needs of our growing city.		Housing affordability is a challenge as the city grows. Council contributes through a range of housing interventions including: providing sustainable and quality social housing; and. through our enabling role through Spatial and District Planning
Environment		Resilience
We have a key challenge in responding to climate change in line with the Council’s declaration of a climate emergency and adoption of its Te Atakura Strategy. In addition, the city has ambitions around the natural environment and waste minimisation that requires Council investment		The Council has been developing the city’s resilience for decades. As a result of the 2016 Kaikoura and other earthquakes we need to do more earthquake strengthening across the city, on our infrastructure and many venues. There are also big additional costs such as funding the pop-up libraries opened due to the closure of the Central Library and the increasing costs of our insurance.

Some of these challenges are common across the country, but we also have cost pressures that are unique to Wellington. They mainly come from community demand and meeting government regulations. So there is pressure on our budget which contributes to the proposed rates increases and for some of our fees and user charges (non-rates revenue).More revenue helps minimise the impact of the increasing costs to rates.

Community outcomes and priorities

To help prioritise our Long-term Plan investment and with community input we developed a Community Outcomes Framework to put community environmental, social, cultural; and economic wellbeing at the centre of our planning. You can read more about the detailed community response and overall strategic direction in our consultation document. The outcomes are:

Environmental: A sustainable, climate friendly eco capital	Social: A people friendly, compact, safe, and accessible capital city	Cultural: An innovative, inclusive, and creative city	Economic: A dynamic and sustainable economy
A city where the natural environment is being preserved, biodiversity improved, natural resources are used sustainably, and the city is mitigating and adapting to climate change – for now and future generations	An inclusive, liveable, and resilient city where people and communities can learn, are connected, well housed, safe, and healthy	Wellington is a vibrant, creative city with the energy and opportunity to connect, collaborate, explore identities, and openly express, preserve, and enjoy arts, culture, and heritage	The city is attracting and developing creative talent to enterprises across the city, creating jobs through innovation and growth while working towards an environmentally sustainable future.
For the next three years we have six priority objectives to focus on - which are based on community feedback:
Strong partnerships with mana whenua
An accelerating zero-carbon and waste-free transition
A functioning, resilient and reliable three waters infrastructure	Wellington has affordable, resilient, and safe housing	The city has resilient and fit-for-purpose community, creative and cultural spaces	The city’s core transport infrastructure is a safe, resilient, reliable network

Decisions coming up

Alongside our Big Decisions, we have key issues that are important to Wellington and could have big costs associated with them. For many of these decisions we will need to leave headroom in our debt limit to fund them in the future or, find alternate methods of funding. The decisions are:

• Three waters reform (see also the Auditor's opinion on pages 72-74 of the consultation document below or from the document library on right of this page)
• Let’s Get Wellington Moving
• Community Infrastructure investments
• Affordable Housing
• City Housing financial sustainability (see also the Auditor's opinion pages 72-74 of the consultation document below or from the document library on right of this page)
• Venues strengthening and upgrades
• Further divestment opportunities
• The Wellington Growth Framework (currently being consulted on separately)

The decisions on these issues are yet to be made and we will consult on them closer to the time. There is a lot more detail on our strategic direction in the consultation document.

Want to know more about our 7 big decisions? Head back to our Long-term Plan homepage or read our full consultation document.