Your feedback is in – here’s what local businesses told us
In May 2025 our Economic Development team surveyed local businesses to better understand current business sentiment, how supported businesses feel by Council, and how we can better support businesses over the long term.
We’re grateful to the 100+ respondents who shared their time and insights. The feedback was detailed, with plenty of open-text responses giving us valuable perspectives that are already shaping our Economic Development work.
At a glance
The survey showed mixed business results, with some growing and others facing challenges. Many called for more housing and commercial development to support business growth, as well as better infrastructure and community services. This feedback will guide Council’s work to support local businesses.
By running this survey annually, we aim to track how supported businesses feel, monitor emerging trends and challenges, and measure progress against our Long Term Plan targets. This ongoing feedback helps Council adapt and improve its economic development strategies to better meet the needs of local businesses.
View the summary of results
You can read our three-page summary, including detailed breakdowns, graphs, and insights at the link above.
What’s next
Detailed survey results are being shared across the organisation and with others who we work closely with and were specifically mentioned in the survey, for example Destination Hauraki Coromandel.
The question asking whether businesses feel supported (or not) by our council is directly related to a Long Term Plan service delivery measure for our Economic Development team. For 2024/25 our target was 50% of businesses (as surveyed) feel supported by our Council.
We have not met the target. This tells us that if supporting businesses is still considered to be a core council service, then things need to change so more businesses feel supported.
Reporting on this measure will be included in Council’s Audited Annual Report.
Based on what respondents shared in the survey, our Economic Development team is committing to:
Being more visible – sharing stories and having wider business engagement (particularly beyond retail and tourism, and business associations).
Raising greater awareness of what businesses can get support with – from us, and from others we partner with like DHC and Soda and their team of Business Growth Advisors.
Continuing to back organisational improvements that help us be business-friendly and enable development.
We’re giving further consideration to suggestions to:
- Provide key customer support or more hands on interactions with businesses, particularly when they are going through consenting processes.
- Have more local procurement for council goods and services.
- Work with businesses to support more local employment and training opportunities.
- The balance of individual/direct business support vs connecting with associations and sectors and focusing on systemic improvements to benefit all businesses.
These require more consideration because they impact budgets, resourcing, and other teams, and in some cases raise questions about the role of local government in supporting individual private sector interests.
Whenever a change happens as a result of this survey, we’ll point back to it so you can see the impact of your input.
This Economic Development Survey will be conducted again next year in May 2026.
A Congratulations
By completing this year’s survey, participants were able to go in the draw to win a free business advertising package on CFM.
The winner of our random draw was Geoff from Hydrocorp NZ – Congratulations Geoff. We look forward to hearing your ad on air.