The draft Long Term Financial Plan 2024/25 – 2033/34 (LTFP) is a 10 year projection of Hornsby Shire Council's future income and expenditure, and outlines the financial direction of Council and its impact on achieving community priorities.

Previous versions of the LTFP demonstrated that forecast financial capacity was below acceptable levels and action was required to ensure that recurrent services, including allocating appropriate budgets for asset maintenance and renewal could be provided in a sustainable manner into the future. These previous versions of the Plan recommended a Special Rate Variation (SRV) to rebalance Council’s finances within acceptable levels over the long term.

Following a rigorous application process, Council was granted approval for the SRV in June 2023 to provide the funding required. Since then, Council has incurred a number of unexpected cost increases that are broadly attributable to a continuation of the high inflationary environment for longer than economists at the time predicted.

A revised 2024/25 to 2033/34 Long Term Financial Plan has now been prepared that includes income and expenditure that aligns with Council’s original application for the SRV, as well providing for the additional cost increases incurred. The revised draft LTFP demonstrates that the SRV will continue to rebalance Council’s projected finances over the term of the Plan with surpluses forecasted each year from 2024/25, whilst noting the need for improvement initiatives to increase financial capacity back to the level forecast in the previous version of the Plan.

Take a look at the draft Long Term Financial Plan and make a submission below.