Budget and Financial Sustainability

Welcome

We strive to report clearly and transparently about where our money comes from, where our money will be spent, and our plans for ensuring long term financial sustainability.

We want to share with you the full picture of Council’s financial position, our challenges, our priorities and plans.

Council is guided in its organisational planning and reporting by the Integrated Planning and Reporting (IP&R) Framework, as prescribed by the Office of Local Government. For more information visit our Integrated Planning and Reporting page.

We invite you to share your feedback on the draft Operational Plan 2025/26 and the draft Long Term Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2033-34 from 30 April 2025 to 28 May 2025. View the plans and find out how to share your feedback via Your Say Woollahra.

Operational Plan

Operational Plan 2024/25

We invite you to share your feedback on the draft Operational Plan 2025/26 via Your Say Woollahra from 30 April 2025 to 28 May 2025.

Our Operational Plan 2024/25(PDF, 21MB) includes the budget, rating structure, fees and charges schedule, and our spending priorities for a one year period, grouped into 14 key areas. It prioritises works and projects for continued growth and development. The proposed investment includes capital works as well as operational works to maintain existing infrastructure and services.

Council reports on our budget, on how we are progressing on our planned projects and the measures we are taking to strengthen our long-term financial security. This enables us to track and review progress. Budget progress reports are quarterly and progress reports on our Operational Plan are bi-annual in February and August.

How we will spend our Budget in 2024/25

Each year Council develops a budget to provide infrastructure and services for our community. Council’s budget was adopted as part of Council’s Operational Plan on 24 June 2024.

In 2024/25, Council has a planned total expenditure of $172.1 million, being $125.3 million in operational expenses, (day to day costs, e.g. running our libraries), $3.1 million in SRV operating expenditure, and $43.7 million in capital projects which includes $2.8 million of SRV Capital expenditure (e.g. Wilberforce car park development).

Council's 2024/25 Capital Works Program

The Operational Plan 2024/25(PDF, 21MB) provides for a Capital Works Program of $43.7 million and includes anticipated Council buildings $24.4 million, mainly due to Wilberforce car park development and infrastructure renewals of $6.8 million, an increase of $24.25 million.

Highlights of the 2024/25 Capital Works Program include:

$22.35 million for the redevelopment of the Wilberforce Avenue carpark in Rose Bay during 2024/25 with a further estimated $13.0 million to be spent in 2025/26.

$2.5 million for the O'Sullivan Road, Bellevue Hill cycleway project. This is an SRV funded project.

$678k for pavement re-sheeting, footpath and storm water works on Birriga Road, Bellevue Hill (Bundarra Road to 4 Birriga Road)

$580k on transition from gas. Phase 1 is replacing hot water units and an electrical upgrade at Kiaora Place and Redleaf. Phase 2 is a variable refrigerant flow system replacement at Kiaora Place building 1
$482k for road pavement, kerb gutter and new footpath reconstruction on Manning Road, Woollahra (Epping Road to Suttie Road)
$434k for road pavement re-sheeting, kerb and gutter reconstruction, dish crossing, footpath works and storm water pit and pipe works on Cambridge Avenue, Vaucluse (Hopetoun Avenue to Palmerston Street)
$350k for road pavement re-sheeting on William Street, Double Bay (Pearce Street to Bay Street)
$300k for the Rose Bay promenade balustrade (heritage item) conservation project
$350k on Dumaresq Road, Rose Bay seawall protection.

The chart below shows the breakdown of the total Capital Works program between categories:

Long Term Financial Plan

We invite you to share your feedback on the draft Long Term Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2033-34 via Your Say Woollahra from 30 April to 28 May 2025.

A requirement of the Local Government Act 1993(s.403) is that a council must have a long-term Resourcing Strategy for the provision of the resources required to perform its functions. The Resourcing Strategy integrates with the Council Delivery Program and Operational Plan. The Resourcing

Strategy consist of the following three components:

Long Term Financial Plan
Workforce Management Plan
Asset Management Plan.

Council needs to maintain a financially sustainable position over time so that we can provide infrastructure and services for the benefit of our community. The Long Term Financial Plan (LTFP) helps us develop a plan to achieve this. Council’s LTFP is a tool to aid decision making, priority setting and problem solving.

The LTFP expresses in financial terms the activities Council proposes to undertake in the short, medium and long term so that we can provide infrastructure and services for the benefit of our community. It is a 10-year rolling plan which is updated annually. It is reviewed, updated and publicly exhibited each year prior to adoption by Council.

Long Term Financial Plan 2024/25-2033/34(PDF, 6MB)

Council's draft Long Term Financial Plan 2024/25 - 2033/34 was placed on formal public exhibition from 1 May to 29 May 2024. Members of the community were invited to make public submissions expressing their views on the draft plans during the public exhibition period to be considered by Council. Public submissions received were considered at a Council Strategic and Corporate Committee meeting held 1 June 2024, prior to a Council meeting 24 June 2024, where the final Long Term Financial Plan 2024/25 - 2033/34 was adopted, commencing 1 July 2024.

Your Say Woollahra is one of the ways Council involves the community in our decision making processes and provides updates on those decisions and plans. We invite you to join our online community engagement platform Your Say Woollahra.

Explore below for the latest updates about our budget and our financial challenges, including how we are addressing them.