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 3 of the 2021-31 Long-term Plan.

We’re staying the course with our 2021-31 Long-term Plan, which was adopted by councillors based on thorough community consultation about what our region needs for now and the future.

To set the budgets for the Long-term Plan, we had to make economic predictions in the uncertainty of 2021 about future years. Inflation has been far higher than was foreseeable, and so project costs have become higher than expected. To meet these increased costs going forward, rates are rising more than the planned 5% into the next financial year.

While we are not formally consulting on the 2023/2024 Annual Plan because there have been no significant or material changes from the 2021-31 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.

You can provide feedback on our Annual Plan, as well as our Fees and Charges, on the webpage here: www.es.govt.nz/consultations

Any major changes to our plans or new projects would need to be part of our upcoming Long-term Plan (2024/25). We review this 10-year plan every three years and are in the early stages of this planning process. You can find out more under “How do I have input on the work of ES?” below.

The Draft Annual Plan will be presented to the Finance and Performance Committee for review, before being be presented to the following full meeting of Council. 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 by social media 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 webpage here: www.es.govt.nz/about-us/plans-and-strategies/council-plans/annual-plan

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:

• Biodiversity work

This includes Biodiversity Action on the Ground (BAG), Wilding Pines, and Fish Passage projects, which are 100% funded by central government (MfE and DoC) through “Jobs for Nature”.

• 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 defenses around ¾ central government funding, ¼ council funding.

In line with the 2021-31 Long-term Plan, areas that will see significant work over the coming year include:

• Climate resilience to improve Southland’s flood defences
• Coastal and marine work
• Water and land

- Proposed Southland Water and Land Plan
- Progressing Plan Change Tuatahi
- Improving our water hauora

• Biosecurity and Biodiversity

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: www.es.govt.nz/consultations

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.

A regional working group comprised of the region’s four councils and Te Aō Marama Inc was established earlier this year and is advancing a regional climate change response. It is co-chaired by Environment Southland and Te Aō Marama.

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. These matters include a co-ordinated collaborative approach to RMA reform and National Planning Standard implementation, as well as a number of joint projects such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) acquisition.

We currently have a project underway to establish a baseline measurement for Environment Southland’s greenhouse gas emissions. The project should be finished early in the 2023/24 Financial year, and will inform the development of emissions reduction pathways to achieve our Net Zero 2050 goal.

Outside of our organisation, Environment Southland is working with others on a regional climate change strategy and framework for action. We’re leading a project with Te Ao Mārama, working alongside our partner agencies Gore District Council, Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council. The strategy will feed into the upcoming 2023-34 Long-term Plan process.

Finally, we’re looking at how we manage our catchments to ensure climate resilience in the longer-term. This may mean changes to the way we’ve done things historically, as rivers for example, may need to be managed differently in the future to enable us to adapt to climate change.

While the direct effects of Covid-19 have largely passed, the indirect effects linger on in both inflation and unavailability of resources. Although availability issues are starting to improve, we are still seeing the effects in disrupted timelines and higher costs across the board.

Yes, as part of our climate resilience projects. When central government offers to cover ¾ of the project costs, it makes sense to borrow the other 25% to take advantage of the available funding.

The Council makes decisions on what projects and programmes to work on every three years, as part of the Long-term Plan process. 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 3 of the 2021-31 Long-term Plan. This means there will be a review of the Long-term Plan in 2024, and your input into that helps us set the direction and take a long-term view of planning, for now and the future.

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 6.9% would equate to approximately $23 per year 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.

A positive contribution to this year’s budget has been the unexpected return of the cruise ship and marine fees. This unbudgeted income will help the Council to keep the rate increase down, to get out of operating deficit and will support our coastal science work, the Fiordland Undaria control programme and other coastal activities.

A rate increase of 5% was planned for this year in the Long-term Plan (LTP). As we all know, inflation has been a lot higher than we could have predicted back in 2020/21. Just as rising prices are impacting all parts of the community, they are also affecting the Council’s work-related costs.

Last year, Councillors held the rate increase to 5% in the face of 7% inflation, however it is not sustainable to keep doing this. The cost of doing our work has increased by about 9%, which is $3.9 million higher than forecast in the 2021-2031 Long-term Plan.

The Council has looked at its own expenditure and worked hard to keep any rates increase as low as possible, while still delivering the services we committed to in the Long-term Plan.

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