Council Plan and Budget

The Council Plan is our 10-year strategic plan that details all our work, projects and budget information.

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The Council Plan is our strategic plan that guides all our work. It provides a strong foundation for the continuing rollout of projects, services and initiatives that go to the heart of the health and wellbeing of our diverse community.

Council Plan and Budget documents

From 1 July 2024 until 30 June 2025

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year 4 - Volume 1 - Vision and Direction (PDF 4.70 MB)

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year 4 - Volume 2 - Budget 2024/25 (PDF 6.71 MB)

Council Plan 2021-2031 Year 4 - Volume 3 - Service Profiles (PDF 2.52 MB)

Adopting and implementing the Council Plan and Budget (Year 4)

On 26 June 2024, Council adopted Year 4 of the Council Plan 2021-2031 and Budget 2024/25.

The Council Plan 2021-2031 is a 10-year roadmap, that operates in four-year cycles and requires redrafting every time a new Council is elected to ensure it continues to accurately reflect the vision of our councillors and community.

Every year, in consultation with the community, we review and revise the Council Plan and we create a Budget to assist us in meeting our strategic objectives.

Thank you to the 382 individuals and groups who took time to have their say on the 2024/25 documents. You can find the full engagement report here.

Given that we were planning for the final year of the current four-year planning cycle, not many major changes were proposed for 2024/25. Instead, the focus was on developing an annual budget that responds to the dynamic financial environment and delivers on existing initiatives and projects.

The two key changes that were adopted, include:

An average rate increase of 2.75 per cent, which is in line with the rates cap, is lower than last year’s increase and is less than forecast inflation.
The addition of three new differential rates categories – derelict land, vacant land and unactivated retail land – which will incur higher rates to encourage local development, with exemptions and appeals processes being offered.

These changes will apply from 1 July 2024 and will be implementing through Council’s regular rates notice processes.

In addition to these changes, the Council Plan and Budget is also going to include adjustments to waste charges, the Victorian Government’s Fire Services Property Levy, project investments and Council indicators.

For more information about these changes, we recommend check out our ‘A guide to your Council Plan and Budget (Year 4)’ news article.

Our Community Vision

Our Community Vision in Year 4 of our Council Plan remains the same: "Proudly Port Phillip: A liveable and vibrant City that enhances the wellbeing of our community"

In the 10-year timespan of this Plan, we aim to exceed our community vision described in the subsequent statements.

We recognise the legacy of the traditional owners of the land and acknowledge the foresight of others who have come before us.

We celebrate Port Phillip as a city of many distinct places, connected by the common threads of safety, inclusion, and wellbeing so everyone can live their best life.

Social cohesion - forged from understanding, celebrating and listening to the diverse cultures in our City - is a foundation for this success.

We have a well-designed and planned city where the heritage and character of the built form is enhanced and protected.

We are renowned as a cultural hub, from live music to our creative industries. This creativity drives music, exhibitions, and events which delight residents and encourage visitors to keep returning.

Our more diverse local economy enjoys greater protection from financial shocks and new investment and industries within our City are generating jobs and prosperity.

We have a range of accessible and active transport choices that make it easy for everyone to move around our City. Visiting lively shopping and dining destinations or accessing public transport is all possible within a 10 to 15-minute walk from our neighbourhoods.

Our health and wellbeing are enriched by having quality public spaces close to home. We can visit these spaces easily to enjoy quiet moments or more active pursuits with our friends and families.

The beauty and biodiversity of our coastal, bay, park, waterway, and inland environments are protected and enhanced for future generations to enjoy. We have played our part in promoting and addressing environmental sustainability, from tackling climate change, emissions, and sea-level rise to minimising flooding risks.

We are proud that our participation in civic life means Port Phillip has retained its unique character and heritage while being admired as a creative hub that continues to evolve and innovate. We know our voice is heard and helps deliver meaningful outcomes.

We have a local council that strives to deliver services in the most efficient, transparent, and equitable way. Our Council provides strong financial stewardship, is responsible, and works hard to balance meeting community expectations and diversifying revenue streams with minimising costs for our community.

This is the minimum we hope for our community in 10 years’ time – we hope to achieve much more.

This is our legacy for generations to come.

Our Strategic Directions

The Council Plan sets out five Strategic Directions. They guide our priorities and actions as we work towards achieving the Community Vision. These are the Directions:

Inclusive: A City that is a place for all members of our community, where people feel supported and comfortable being themselves and expressing their identities.

Liveable: A City that is a great place to live, where our community has access to high quality public spaces, development and growth are well-managed, and it is safer and easy to connect and travel within.

Sustainable: A City that has a sustainable future, where our environmentally aware and active community benefits from living in a bayside city that is greener, cooler, cleaner and climate resilient.

Vibrant: A City that has a flourishing economy, where our community and local businesses thrive, and we maintain and enhance our reputation as one of Melbourne’s cultural and creative hubs.

Well-Governed: A City that is a leading local government authority, where our community and our organisation are in a better place as a result of our collective efforts.

Addressing our challenges

The Council Plan 2021-31 responds to eight key long-term challenges. These must be addressed to achieve the vision our community has for Port Phillip over the coming years. The challenges are:

Addressing issues including:
- Extreme disadvantage and poorer health outcomes in some of our neighbourhoods.
- Financial stresses and job losses as exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Homelessness and the need to provide longer-term accommodation with access to integrated support services.
Addressing issues including:
- An age-diverse population with 14 per cent of residents aged over 65 and 43 per cent being 'digital natives' aged under 34 (Source: 2021 Census Community Profiles).
- A culturally diverse community with 514 people who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as well as one third of residents being born overseas and 20 per cent speaking a language other than English (Source: 2021 Census Community Profiles).
- Customers expect high quality, efficient services and meaningful opportunities to communicate and engage with Council.
Addressing issues including:
- complex legislative and policy environment, including changes to the Local Government Performance Reporting Framework.
- The growing importance of government and community services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Communities looking to councils to fill any gaps created by a reduction or change to services provided by other tiers of government.
- A greater reliance on technology and the need to address cybersecurity, data protection and privacy challenges.
Addressing issues including:
- Responding to our declared a climate emergency through activities such as:
  - embed sustainability in Council projects, services and programs
  - development of a Coastal Adaptation Strategy and Marine and Coastal Plan
  - constructing an environmentally sustainable designed EcoCentre facility
  - upgrading Council buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and utility bills
  - enhance urban forests as identified in Greening Port Phillip and Act and Adapt Strategies and Street tree planting program 2017-2022
  - implementing new waste service.
Addressing issues including:
- The continued impact of pandemic-related loss of international visitors to our bayside municipality.
- Our hospitality sector continues to be hampered by considerable staffing shortages.
Addressing issues including:
- Impacts on population growth following the COVID-19 pandemic, with slowed construction and migrant growth, especially in the context of a projected forecast by 2036 of an extra 38,290 people moving to our City.
- Longer term implications of the pandemic, which are likely to include greater demand for high-quality, mixed used working environments, challenging conditions for in-store retailing and increased daytime population in residential areas.
Addressing issues including:
- Being the most densely populated municipality in Victoria, with the current density equating to 5,029 persons per square metres (Source: Profile ID).
- The pressure on our 265 kilometres of roads, 59 kilometres of bike lanes and paths and 414 kilometres of footpaths.
- The pandemic not reducing the number of trips taken by our Community member, however has changed the time, the way and the reasons for travel.
- An increase in the number of people working from home and the impact on road networks, forms of transport and residential parking needs.
Addressing issues including:
- More household waste generated as our population grows.
- Increased Victorian Government's landfill levy to $125.90 per tonne in 2022.
- Implementation of the Victorian Government's policy, 'Recycling Victoria, a new economy', which require Council to provide households access to a four-stream waste model.
- Illegally dumped waste.

In this section

Previous Council Plans and Budgets

Council Plan and Budget

Council Plan and Budget documents

Adopting and implementing the Council Plan and Budget (Year 4)

Our Community Vision

Our Strategic Directions

Addressing our challenges

A city of economic and social contrasts

Changing customer expectations and needs

Government, legislative and technology changes

Climate change and the environment

The strength and diversity of our local economy

Future-proofing our growing City of Port Phillip

Getting around our dense inner City of Port Phillip

Waste management

In this section

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