Hastings City Business Association chair Craig Riddiford says local businesses are extremely disappointed after the council confirmed a rating structure that will leave some commercial properties paying up to 50 percent more.
Hastings CBD businesses and landlords are facing sharp rates increases after the council retained its differential rating structure.
Hastings City Business Association chair Craig Riddiford says local businesses are extremely disappointed after Hastings District Council confirmed a rating structure that will leave some commercial and industrial properties paying up to 50 percent more than a year ago.
The council voted 10 to five to retain its current differential rating structure for the 2026/27 financial year. It also adopted an annual plan with an average rates increase of 5.9 percent, while keeping higher commercial and industrial differentials and promising a wider rating review before the next Long Term Plan. For business owners and landlords, the review promise offers little immediate relief because the new bills arrive now.
Riddiford said hundreds of businesses engaged in the process by attending meetings, making submissions and describing the financial pressure they were already under. His frustration is that the final decision did not, in his view, reflect those concerns. The association had pushed for a different outcome after local operators discovered that commercial and industrial rises would far exceed the headline average.
The mechanics are important. Hastings uses land value to calculate the general rate, and recent Quotable Value revaluations lifted some commercial and industrial land values relative to residential land. That shifted a larger share of the district's rates requirement onto business properties. The effect was then amplified by existing differentials: three times the general rate for CBD commercial real estate in Hastings and Havelock North, 2.75 times for other urban commercial property, and 2.35 times for non-urban commercial and chartered clubs.
Council's argument is that reducing the commercial differentials would push more cost onto other ratepayers, including residential households. Mayor Wendy Schollum said the decision was difficult and that the council had heard clearly from businesses under pressure, while also recognising pressure on households. She pointed to the council's work to reduce the forecast average increase from 10 percent to 5.9 percent.
That explains the council's balancing act, but it does not remove the local economic risk. Commercial landlords may pass higher rates on through leases. Retailers, hospitality businesses, service operators and small industrial firms may have less room to absorb those costs after wages, insurance, debt servicing and supplier prices. If too many cost increases arrive together, investment is delayed, vacancies become harder to fill and central-city confidence weakens.
Bill Livingstone, who owns Livingstone Properties with business partner Chris Skerman, had previously warned that the Hastings CBD was not in great shape and that the surge could push some businesses over the edge. That is why the story is not only about a council formula. It is about the local operators who have to decide whether to raise prices, cut spending, renegotiate leases, defer maintenance or accept lower margins.
The promised rating review now becomes the next accountability point. Businesses will want the council to test whether the current differential system still reflects ability to pay, economic impact and the kind of town centre Hastings wants. Households will also want protection from sudden cost shifting. The hard part is that both can be true at once: residents are under pressure, and so are local employers.
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