Hutt City Council has published its 2025 Pre-Election Report ahead of the local elections in October.

Chief Executive Jo Miller said that while the report is a statutory requirement, it also serves as an opportunity to widely share the challenges and opportunities facing the Lower Hutt.

Hutt City Council’s pre-election report makes it clear there are a number of challenges and significant work ahead. The Long Term Plan includes a $2.8 billion investment for infrastructure through to 2034 - most of which is going directly into water and transport.

"We are starting work on Te Wai Takamori o Te Awa Kairangi (RiverLink) - a combined $1.5 billion investment in partnership with the Government and Greater Wellington Regional Council. This is the largest project ever delivered in the city’s history," says Jo Miller.

"At the same time, we are working to set up a new regional water entity from 1 July 2026."

Miller says there are exciting projects ahead but also real pressures.

"The incoming Council will need to make some hard calls. Our costs are rising and there is a need to look carefully at what is being spent and why - and how we can improve our performance in a way that doesn’t add significant costs to ratepayers.

"The current form of local government is not sustainable beyond the medium term given the scale of the financial challenges councils across the country are facing. As water reform and changes to the planning system via the Resource Management Act arrive, important discussions are starting to occur on amalgamation options for councils in the Wellington region."

In response to some of the challenges facing local government, Hutt City Council is already using innovation to boost performance and find efficiencies with the use of technology, particularly Generative AI. Use of AI tools has saved tens of thousands of hours of staff time. Work is now ongoing to build on these improvements and leverage recent investment in modern digital tools.

As part of our wider work exploring how AI can help us connect more effectively with our community, Hutt City Council has created a new podcast series unpacking the Pre-Election Report. Narrated by an AI version of Chief Executive Jo Miller’s voice, the short episodes aim to make the report’s insights more accessible and easier to engage with.

"Within our increasing use of AI, I suggested that we do something innovative and deliver New Zealand’s first AI podcast highlighting the pre-election report. It’s not only a way to showcase AI use, it actually makes the content more accessible to more of our community - like the visually impaired."

People interested in standing for Council or just keen to learn more about how the city is run, are encouraged to read the Pre-Election Report. It includes lots of useful information, graphs and data. It also lists other documents you can read if you want more detail.

Key election dates:

4 July: Candidate nominations opened.

14 July: Hutt City Council publishes its Pre-Election Report.

1 August: Candidate nominations close at noon and the electoral roll closes.

9 September: Voting documents posted out and voting opens.

11 October: Voting closes at noon and preliminary results available

By 19 October: Declaration of final election results.

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