Under the Local Government Act, it is a requirement that Victorian councils prepare a community vision with a minimum 10-year horizon. The Vision and associated strategic plans must be developed through a deliberative engagement process and adopted by 31 October in the year following a council election.

This time, we have set ourselves an ambitious 2050 Vision that will guide our work over a longer period of time and create a shared identity and sense of pride for the city we want to be. This has been shaped by the many and varied aspirations and ideas we heard during earlier engagement including the M2050 Summit, roundtables, People’s Panel and survey.

Following council elections held every four years, councils are required to develop a Council Plan that sets the strategic direction of the council term. A Council Plan must include what we will seek to achieve, how we propose to achieve this and how we will measure success. At City of Melbourne, we also embed our health and wellbeing priorities within this key document.

Local governments play a significant role in improving the health and wellbeing of the community. Under the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Act (2008) every four years local governments in Victoria are required to prepare a Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan (MPHWP) that seeks to protect, promote and strengthen the health and wellbeing of their communities. The City of Melbourne Health and Wellbeing priorities have been informed by community feedback and health and wellbeing data and evidence.

To find out more: Read the Health and Wellbeing Insights Report (PDF 8.74 MB) and Health and Wellbeing Insights Report - accessible version (MS Word 340 KB).

The health and wellbeing priority areas in the Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2025–29 are integrated into the outcomes, indicators and key activities of the draft Council Plan. The priority areas are:

• Family violence with a focus on increasing awareness of and access to family violence support and prevention initiatives.
• Safety with a focus on increasing the number of people who feel safe in our city and community settings.
• Food security with a focus on increasing community awareness of and access to nutritious and affordable food.
• Homelessness with a focus on increasing access to support services for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
• Mental health and wellbeing with a focus on increasing community access to programs, services and initiatives that support mental health and wellbeing.
• Social connection with a focus on increasing a sense of belonging in the community.
• Active living with a focus on encouraging people to be more active in their everyday life.
• Community resilience with a focus on increasing community support for each other in times of an emergency.
• Built and natural form resilience to extreme weather with a focus on increasing shading, cooling and flood infrastructure and interventions.
• Affordable housing with a focus on increasing the supply of social and affordable housing that meets the needs of our community.

The Asset Plan 2025–35 sets out how we will manage our community assets – for example, roads and footpaths, parks and recreation facilities, buildings, lighting and drainage systems – and continue to deliver services to meet community expectations.

The Asset Plan supports the delivery of the Council Plan and other strategic plans of Council and is deliverable under section 92 of the Local Government Act 2020.

The Financial Plan outlines how Council will manage our finances sustainably to deliver the priorities in the Council Plan and work towards our aspirations in the M2050 Vision.

The Financial Plan 2025–35 is deliverable under section 91 of the Local Government Act 2020.

During the development of each of these strategic documents, Council undertook an extensive engagement process, providing the opportunity for the community to inform council decision-making. This engagement is consistent with the City of Melbourne Community Engagement Policy, including our approach to deliberative engagement.

Engagement activities held between March to May 2025 were aimed at ensuring the plans were informed by a mix of voices from diverse communities, stakeholders and geographies. To find out more read the community consultation page.