Stonnington Tomorrow is our shared blueprint for the future. It sets out what matters most to our community, what we plan to deliver, and our overall direction for the next four years.
A challenging economic environment
Like many Councils across Victoria, the City of Stonnington is facing growing financial pressures. There is a widening gap between the income we receive from rates and the rising costs of maintaining key services, such as roads, footpaths sports fields, playgrounds and pools.
This is due to the impacts of:
- rate capping
- cost shifting from other levels of government
- insurance challenges
- revenue loss since the pandemic.
Our rates are also some of the lowest in the state. Stonnington’s average rate is lower than 71 of the 79 Councils in Victoria. Therefore, state government rate capping has had a particularly challenging impact on our revenue.
Pressure has been building year by year. We've had to make some difficult choices including cutting costs, increasing fees and scaling back services where we can.
Continuing to cut back is not sustainable if we want to maintain the services and facilities that make our city great and deliver on the objectives in our Council Plan - Stonnington Tomorrow.
Building our future financial roadmap
This brings us to a critical point in time. The conversation about key aspects of our financial roadmap, Funding Stonnington Tomorrow, has begun.
This isn’t just about how we generate revenue. It’s about how we:
- deliver services in smarter and more efficient ways
- manage and use Council-owned assets to better serve the community
- prioritise funding to meet evolving needs and challenges
- advocate to other levels of government for increased financial flexibility + autonomy.
There are several options on the table to improve our financial capacity, which Council is yet to formally consider. They might include:
- more divestment or repurposing of underperforming assets
- future changes to the special rates schemes applied to Stonnington’s commercial precincts
- paid on-street parking, as it currently operates in inner-metro Councils
- selected and defensible increases to eligible fees and charges
- future service level changes
- changes to the Council’s service delivery models and discretionary expenditure
- a future application for a modest, one-off adjustment to Stonnington’s low rates above the prescribed rates cap.
Next steps
We’re currently developing the framework for Funding Stonnington Tomorrow, which will form the basis for future community engagement and Council decisions later in the year and into 2026.