This consultation is closed.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on our draft Budget 2022-23. The final Budget was adopted at the Council meeting on Thursday 23 June 2022.

Read the Budget 2022-23 and Long Term Financial Plan.

Have your say on Yarra's draft Budget and draft Long Term Financial Plan

We gave you the opportunity to provide feedback on Yarra's draft Budget 2022-23 and draft Long Term Financial Plan. The deadline for submissions was 5pm on Friday 6 May 2022.

About the draft Budget

This $219 million draft Budget recognises the need for us to make some tough decisions now to ensure we can continue to deliver what our community wants and expects in the future. Consideration has been given to improving our operations and making them as efficient as possible, managing costs, attracting external funding and expanding opportunities to generate revenue. The draft Budget 2022-23 focuses on addressing our current and future priorities, whilst also being realistic about the challenging financial environment we are currently operating in. While Council has sufficient cash reserves at present, there is a need for urgent and meaningful change now, to ensure we can keep providing for our community in the future.

Like all councils across Victoria, Yarra has been impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, both through increased spending to support our local community and businesses and loss of revenue.

We made a deliberate and considered decision to step up and assist our community and businesses during the pandemic. As a result, our operating environment and financial position has been impacted with losses in excess of $50 million. In addition to this, Yarra has also had to manage the financial challenges associated with rate capping (with rising costs outstripping the rate cap), a growing population, ageing infrastructure, cost-shifting and the need build cash reserves to finance capital projects.

This draft Budget has a strong focus on our fiscal responsibilities and infrastructure, and outlines a range of projects that will help achieve our community’s vision for Yarra. Council expects to deliver financial improvements and efficiencies over the next 10 years of at least $23 million. In addition to this, we are currently undertaking a independent strategic review of our operations, which we will report back to the community seeking their feedback.

Find out more about our draft Budget.

At a glance

  • $219 million total operating expenditure
  • $39 million in capital works projects
  • 1.75% increase in general rate revenue (in line with the Victorian Government rate cap)

Highlights

We will continue to support our more vulnerable community members through its Hardship Policy and Pensioner Rebate, and we will support the broader community through the following projects:

  • Continuing to transition Council buildings off gas, including making significant progress in relation to getting our Town Halls off gas.
  • Collingwood College Early Childhood Centre development (funded primarily by the Department of Education, in partnership with Collingwood College). Council will deliver a refurbished building and outdoor area for the purpose of Council operating three and four-year-old funded kindergarten, playgroups and occasional care.
  • Designing a new pocket park in Charlotte Street, Richmond which will be delivered the following year.
  • A range of improvements across Yarra’s bicycle network.
  • Road safety improvements via dedicated improvements in Carlton North, Fitzroy North, Clifton Hill, Abbotsford and Richmond.
  • Delivering programs to support households and businesses to reduce carbon emissions to work towards a zero carbon Yarra.
  • Master planning for Inner Circle Linear Parklands including community consultation.
  • The introduction of a CALD digital literacy learning program. Council is engaging officers with community language skills, particularly Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Somali, to support our ongoing community and digital learning programs.
  • Acceleration of Yarra’s tree planting program to support the planting of more trees in addition to the approximate 1000 trees we usually plant each year.

How did we develop the draft Budget?

In November 2021 we invited the community to share their priorities and ideas prior to preparing the draft budget. Nearly 400 contributions were received online and at our in person pop up sessions. All suburbs in Yarra were represented and this year we were pleased to see increased participation from our younger population (people aged 15-35 years). Thanks to additional outreach provided by our bicultural liaison officers, we also saw an increase in participation from community members who speak a language other than English.