Environment Southland (ES) councillors officially adopted their 2022/23 Annual Plan today, including sticking to a promised 5% average rates increase. 

The council says they have decided to honour their commitment to comparatively small rates increase from last year’s Long-term Plan, in spite of increasing financial pressures.

Last year’s Annual Plan saw a 20% increase, toted as a one-off reset to balance the budget and undertake the increasing amount of work the council is required to do.

Southland District Council confirmed on Wednesday that they would increase rates by 9.25% for the 2022/23 year. 

Gore District Council is increasing by 5.94% and Invercargill City Council are considering an increase of 7.15%. 

ES Chairman Nicol Horrell says the council has worked extremely hard to reprioritise work and find efficiencies within the organisation in order to stick to the planned rates increase.

“We understand that Southlanders, like the rest of the country, are facing many increases in the cost of living and we are doing everything we can to keep rates down, while working towards the outcomes our community expects from us.”

“At the same time, we are facing many similar cost pressures, particularly rising inflation and interest costs, and some ongoing uncertainties relating to income.”

ES say despite the challenges of the last year, there have also been some highlights in terms of work programmes. 

A number of their climate resilience projects are underway, along with significant progress on our Jobs for Nature – Mahi mō te Taiao projects.

“Two of our Fiordland-based projects are already making a difference, ridding the National Park of invasive plants, while supporting the economic wellbeing of the community. We are ready to build on these achievements in the 2022/23 year," says Horrell.

With freshwater challenges a critical focus, he says there has been some good progress made in understanding the level of change Southland need to make as a region to meet our communities’ aspirations for freshwater.

“There is still a lot of work to come in the freshwater space, but we have been sharing the information we have with our communities and the Regional Forum will soon present its report on options for achieving our freshwater goals."

Council says some of the key differences in the Annual Plan from last year’s Long-term Plan include:

• increased operating costs and higher than expected inflation and interest rates.
• review of the climate resilience projects, including an additional $3 million contingency, which has been built into the budget to provide to provide for potential increased costs given cost increases being seen in the national construction sector.
• the introduction of a rabbit control rate in a specific area east of the Mataura River. This replaces a previous Southern Pest Eradication Society rate. The new rabbit control rate is higher to cover increased costs for the work, as well as costs associated with administering and monitoring the contract.