Council debt levels outstripping revenue growth

Councils are spending more on renewals and maintenance to fix ageing networks. (Image: Getty)

Tue, 02 Apr 2024

Council debt levels may be growing, but local authorities are still relatively under-leveraged compared with previous infrastructure investment cycles.The Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, released new research last week reviewing local government financing tools and asking how debt constrained councils are.As Geoff Cooper, the general manager for strategy at the commission, told attendees of a recent conference hosted by Infrastructure New Zealand: “We are seeing the amount of debt local government is taking on rising, which will b...

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