Southland District (SDC) ratepayers are facing an average 9.22% rates rise if council's 2022/23 draft annual plan gets the green light.

The proposed rates rise is almost 11% higher than the originally projected increase (8.31%), due to a rise in interest rates on loans taken out to complete major capital projects, including water scheme upgrades and local community projects

SDC mayor Gary Tong acknowledged that times are tough, but said council was “between a rock and a hard place” when it committed to a 10-year programme of work to upgrade the district’s ageing infrastructure at a time when many were feeling the pinch because of Covid pandemic restrictions and rising prices.

“We’re conscious that price increases people are already facing does make a rate increase a tough proposition,” Tong said. “Those costs are increasing for council as well."

“We need to keep in mind that our people let us know pretty clearly during our Long Term Plan process that they wanted us to do better with our services and roads, and we agreed with them."

“We couldn’t keep kicking the can down the road any longer, trying to keep rates low in the short term at the expense of infrastructure which was in need of replacement,” Tong said.

Individual rates increases may vary due to property valuation changes and services used. Ratepayers can see the rates specific to their property using the online rates calculator at:

southlanddc.govt.nz/ratessearch2022

SDC is not proposing to consult with the public about the 2022/23 annual plan, which is due to be adopted by the end of June 2022.