Funding

Paying your rates means you have a stake in how the land and its natural resources are managed, and the projects and activities that sustain and grow the region. You can have a say in how rates are set and spent, so it’s important you know how they work.

How are rates decided?

Councillors need to decide how much in total they need to raise.

They think about:

the current needs of important day-to-day work
the scope, timing, and cost of priority projects
the affordability and necessity of new programmes.

Your rates

Councillors then decide how this amount should be raised across all Canterbury ratepayers.

Not everyone pays the same amount in rates. This is because your rates consist of charges that can vary. These are:

General rates, which are based on the capital value of your property.
Targeted rates, which relate to specific work or services (such as flood protection or pest management) that benefit a particular area or group.
A Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC), which is a set fee that everyone pays.

Sources of funding

This image shows where we get our funding:

Doughnut chart: 37% General rates are charged based on the capital value of your property and the location; 23% Targeted rates are charged where there is a specific benefit to the property owner; 18% Grants are received from other agencies; 22% User-pays and other.