Lockyer Valley Regional Council revels in zero debt, million-dollar surplus in 2025-26 budget

This southeast Queensland council has made its neighbouring region blush, boasting a zero-debt outlook for the next decade and a million-dollar surplus in its 2025-26 budget.

Lockyer Valley Regional Council released its 2025-26 on July 1, with a major focus on roads and infrastructure projects.

Lockyer Valley Regional Council released its impressive $114m budget this week, with major highlights including a significant investment into the region’s road network.

Another outstanding achievement for the regional council is its debt free position, which is expected to continue over the next 10 years.

As for general rates increase, Lockyer Valley residents will see a moderate rise in overall rates and utility charges of 5.12 per cent, compared to neighbouring Toowoomba Regional Council whose residents were hit with a whopping 9.5 per cent rate rise.

Deputy mayor Chris Wilson, who also holds the finance portfolio, said council made a conscious decision to pay out its remaining debt in February 2024, and has continued to keep away from accessing any unnecessary loans.

“I’d call it sound financial management, we’ve become good at managing our flood recovery works to make sure we’re only working on improvements to our road network,” he said.

“Council did run into some debt after the 2012-2013 floods due to funding for roads and bridges that wasn’t reimbursed from the state government, so now we only do works we have funding for.”

Mr Wilson said council has continued to make good on its decision more than a decade ago to keep rates at an absolute minimum for residents.

Lockyer Valley Regional Council deputy mayor Chris Wilson. Picture: Dominic Elsome

“We are in a favourable position which has allowed us to keep those rate increases at a minimum year on year for the past decade,” he said.

Mr Wilson said he considered an $114m budget with a million-dollar surplus a balanced budget.

“We’re really happy to have such a low-rate rise compared to other regional councils, it’s a small part on (easing the cost of living) we can play,” he said.

With areas to the east and west of the Lockyer Valley continuing to grow, Mr Wilson said the challenge for council will be keeping up with the demand of the growth.

See the biggest takeaways from the 2025-26 budget below.

CAPITAL WORKS PROGRAM

The more than $29m capital works program is set to deliver 87 projects over the next financial year, with $19.88m dedicated to renewal works, $4.95m on new road network projects and $4.93m on infrastructure upgrades.

Major capital projects include the $6m reseal program which focuses on road network maintenance and renewal, the $5m REPA Program dedicated to road repairs and addressing the lengthy backlog from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The region has spent the better part of a decade reeling from major flood events, with the ex-TC Alfred the latest to wreak havoc on roads and homes.

Laidley business owner Julie Williams told News Corp in March this flood was the worst she had seen since the devastating 2011 floods.

“It was bigger and really fast flowing,” she said.

“It came quickly, I thought we’d have three or four days before we had flooding like this.”

Flooding in Laidley's main street following Cyclone Alfred. Picture: Lockyer Valley Regional Council

Road repairs aside, flood resilience and disaster management are among the top priorities for council, with $290,000 dedicated to upgrading and enhancing the regions disaster warning and modelling systems.

This will also include community consultation on specialist designs for the Laidley Flood Mitigation Scheme, while works will begin once the designs have received final approvals.

RATES AND UTILITIES

Residents will see a slight increase in their rates and utility charges from the previous financial year, with the biggest change coming to waste collection and recycling charges, which will see a 9.33 per cent increase from the 2024-25 budget.

Council attributes this rise to evolving waste management and its alignment with the Queensland government’s vision for a zero-waste society.

More than $10m has been allocated to waste management in this financial year’s budget, with the LVRC predicted to exceed last year’s surplus of $96,000 boasting a surplus of more than $1m.