Resident satisfaction with Council more than matches national averages

Masterton District Council is performing well when compared with councils across New Zealand.

New benchmarking research shows residents’ satisfaction with a range of Council services matches or is higher than the average for other district councils.

Key Research’s 2025/26 Annual Residents Survey Benchmarking Report, uses results from April’s 2026 Residents’ Survey to compare 22 councils, including 19 district councils and three city councils.

Masterton is above the district council average on a number of important measures.

Overall satisfaction with the Council is 40 per cent, above district council average of 38 percent, while overall reputation is 39 per cent compared with 38 per cent. Satisfaction with core service delivery is 54 per cent, equal to the district council average.

The Council performed particularly strongly in waste management, with overall satisfaction at 73 percent, compared with a district council average of 61per cent. Satisfaction with kerbside rubbish and recycling collection was 80 per cent, compared with 70 per cent for district councils, while recycling collection scored 83 per cent compared with 74 per cent.

Other results include:

• Value for money: 40 percent, compared with a district council average of 27 percent
• Engagement and consultation: 37 percent, compared with 34 percent
• Performance of elected members: 36 percent, compared with 33 percent
• Enquiry handling: 62 percent, compared with 61 percent
• Overall reputation: 39 percent, compared with 38 percent
• Leadership: 43 percent, compared with 39 percent
• Quality of services: 54 percent, compared with 45 percent.

Masterton also scored above the district council average for overall roading infrastructure (39 per cent compared with 37 per cent), maintenance and quality of roads (39 per cent compared with 35 per cent), and availability of parking (59 per cent compared with 53 per cent).

However, the 48 percent score for water management was below the 52 percent average for district councils, with regulatory services score (42 percent) below the 47 percent average nationally. Maintenance and quality of footpaths (41 percent) was below the national average of 46 percent,

Chief Executive Kym Fell said the results provided useful evidence that Council’s work was making a difference for the community.

“Overall, these are encouraging results for Council and, importantly, they give us a useful benchmark against other councils around the country.

“We appreciate some of these numbers nationally are fairly low and we know there are areas where we need to improve. The results are useful in showing us where those opportunities are. But it is also important to recognise the areas where Masterton is performing well.

“Residents are telling us that they see value in the services Council provides, that they are reasonably satisfied with how we engage with them, and that they have confidence in the quality of the services we deliver.

“That doesn’t mean we sit back and celebrate – we want to be far better than average. The results give us a good baseline and something to build on.”

The benchmarking survey involved 22 councils across New Zealand, with respondents selected from electoral rolls, ratepayer databases and previous survey contacts. The results were weighted to reflect key population demographics based on the 2023 Census.

ENDS