What has Council done to reduce costs?
Since 2023, North Sydney Council has implemented a comprehensive program of reform to reduce costs, increase revenue and improve efficiency before seeking any additional funding through rates.
This work has delivered more than $7.3 million in confirmed savings and additional revenue to date. This includes:
- 2 million per year in ongoing direct cost savings,
- $1.7 million per year in additional revenue and
- $5.3 million in one-off savings.
A further $3.7 million per year in costs has been avoided through proactive initiatives, representing expenditure that would otherwise have required higher rates to fund. More than 35,000 staff hours per year have been freed through efficiency improvements and reinvested into service delivery.
Collectively, these efforts have reduced the scale of the rate increase Council needed to seek by a cumulative 14.9% over the three-year SRV period.
Council's Productivity and Improvement Plan details every initiative, saving and efficiency gain achieved across the organisation. It forecasts more than $52 million in cumulative savings and additional income over the next 10 years, including $23 million in reduced expenditure and $29 million in increased income.
This work continues. Council remains committed to finding further savings and efficiencies, and to being transparent about how ratepayers' money is managed.
→ Read Council’s Productivity and Improvement Plan
→ Read Council’s Long-Term Financial Plan
→ Read the Draft Delivery Program 2025–2029 and Operational Plan and Budget 2026–2027