Annual Plan FAQS

Our annual plan sets out what we aim to achieve in the next financial year, through our work programmes and associated budgets. Annual plans are effectively an update on the forecasted work and financial information in the Long-term Plan. The Long-term Plan is a ten-year plan, reviewed every three years and it outlines priorities, levels of service and budgets. This Annual Plan is year 2 of the 2024-34 Long-term Plan.

There are no significant changes to the work programme from the Long-term Plan 2024-34 (LTP), but the Council is acutely aware of ongoing cost of living concerns in the community.

There has been considerable work undertaken on how to best progress the 2025/26 work programme in the face of changing costs and income, while maximising value for the community.

While we are not formally consulting on the 2025-2026 Annual Plan because there have been no significant or material changes from the 2024-34 Long-term Plan, we are open to receiving feedback, which can be provided via email to consultation@es.govt.nz or by talking with your regional Councillor.

We are consulting on river management funding and the proposed Fees and Charges Schedule – details here.

We are open to receiving feedback, which can be provided via email to consultation@es.govt.nz or by talking with your regional Councillor.

We are consulting on river management funding and the proposed Fees and Charges Schedule – details here.

The Draft Annual Plan will be presented to the Finance and Performance Committee for review, before being presented to the following full meeting of Council, in June. The Draft Annual Plan document will be included in the public agenda for these meetings, made available on our website, and we will notify our community when it is released.

In the meantime, you can find out more about the direction Council is seeking to take in on the Annual Plan page here.

Environment Southland actively seeks central government funding to reduce the rates burden on our region’s residents. There’s a lot of work to do across a large geographic area, while we have a comparatively low population, so it’s important to do this to reduce pressure on Southland ratepayers wherever we can.

Some examples of non-rates funding include:

• Fees and charges for council services. For example, consent holders are responsible for meeting the majority of processing costs for their applications and monitoring.
• Climate resilience/Flood defences around 60% central government funding, 40% council funding.

Aside from work that is essential to community safety, which cannot be suspended or we would not meet our obligations as a regional council, there are reasons why stopping work may not be feasible.

With inflation and interest rates consistently rising, postponing or delaying work now can translate to increased labour and material costs later on. In the future, there may also be different or more complex legislation for projects to adhere to, which could even mean a stopped project would need to be re-planned – and incur additional project planning costs, before it could resume.

Environment Southland also carries out work that must meet national legislative timelines, for example around water quality. Of course, suspending that work is not an option.

Some of our work is also focused on restoration. Cancelling work on those projects would mean the situation continues to deteriorate, and as well as prolonged negative effects for our communities and environment, would be exponentially more costly to remedy later.

Finally, not all work is able to be stopped easily part-way through. After all, for example, half a flood bank is no use to anyone!

You can find out about this in detail on our Fees and Charges consultation webpage: https://www.haveyoursay.es.govt.nz/

Te Ao Mārama Inc are a partner in several key work programmes and projects across our water and land, coastal, climate change and community resilience and biodiversity and biosecurity portfolios. These programmes and projects are advanced under the oversight of our Regional Services Committee (Rōpū Ratonga-a-Rohe), Strategy and Policy Committee (Rautaki me Mahere), and Climate Change Sub-Committee, which all include mana whena representatives.

At a staff level, there are also a number of working groups designed to enable a joined up approach to regional matters, predominately in the resource management space.

Environment Southland is working with regional partners on a response to climate change in partnership with Southland’s three other councils – Gore District Council, Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council. For more on our changing climate click here.

Rates, along with other sources of funding and revenue, are used to finance Environment Southland’s work, and are based on the capital value, land use and location of rateable properties.

The average rate increase of 8.8% would equate to approximately $32 for the year or 62 cents per week for residential ratepayers. Bear in mind that individual rates may vary significantly, and this is in large part due to variations in land and capital values.

Rates amounts are unique to each property and are based on updated valuations from Quotable Value, using our equalisation process to even out any big jumps. This year the increasing property values have surged ahead of estimates in some areas. As a result, where property values have gone up substantially more than others, associated rates will increase by more than the average.

Since the adoption of the LTP, several factors have changed. Notably a $620,000 reduction of the forecast marine fee income, down from $2.6 million forecast.

The proposal being put forward reduced the proposed average rate increase to 8.8% for the 2025-26 year – down from 12.9%

The proposed reduction has been achieved through $1m in savings via changes in forecasting assumptions, operational cost savings, consent monitoring efficiencies, and other efficiency gains across the organisation.

The Council is continuing to focus on increasing the resilience of the region to flood risk as outlined in the 2024-34 LTP, alongside other committed work programmes and levels of service.

Different councils are responsible for different work. As a regional council, Environment Southland is responsible for the sustainable management of our region’s natural resources - land, water, air and coast - in partnership with the community. Your city or district council provides other services, such as road maintenance and waste collection.

Meeting these differing responsibilities requires different work across different years, and also depends on the specific plans each council has in place. This means funding needs will vary between our region’s four councils.

We have options available for paying rates in installments. You can pay three equal instalments across the year via direct debit – see our direct debit sign-up and online payments pages for more information.

If you would like to discuss your specific circumstances further, please call 0800 377 2837.

Our rates-specific FAQ can be found here: https://www.es.govt.nz/about-us/rates/rates-faq