Our income

Kaikōura coastline

Our income | Ngā Whiwhinga Pūtea

Where possible, expenditure is fully or partially funded by those who directly benefit from that expenditure through user pays (such as bus fares for those using the Metro bus service) or if a project has national benefits through central government grants.

Expenditure not funded by grants and user pays income is funded through general rates, targeted rates or use of reserves.

In 2022/23 we received $274.1M from the following sources:

Fees, charges and other revenue – 13% of income (2022: 16%)
Subsidies and grants – 32% of income (2022: 30%)
General rates – 33% of income (2022: 34%)
Targeted rates – 22% of income (2022: 20%).

Rates

The quarterly rates invoice from Environment Canterbury – included in the rates bill from each local territorial authority – contains two different types of rates: a general rate and a targeted rate.

General rates

General rates for an individual property are calculated using the property’s capital value (the combined value of the land and buildings). The total rates for Canterbury are spread across all properties: residential, commercial and industrial. Because rates are calculated on the capital value, higher-value properties have higher rates than properties with a lower capital value.

$91.4M general rates collected

Targeted rates

Targeted rates are levied for a particular purpose or to a group who may benefit from a service that the Council provides. For example, people near a bus route might pay a targeted rate because they could benefit from that bus route, or rural landowners might pay a targeted rate to pay for pest control on their land, a new stop-bank to protect their land from flooding, or an ecosystem restoration programme.

$60.3M targeted rates collected

Other sources of income

Some of our activities are funded by user-pays charges. These are paid on activities such as consents and passenger fares paid on public transport. Environment Canterbury also receives grants to carry out work, particularly for public transport. Much of this funding comes from central government agencies. Grants make up about 32% of Council’s total revenue. Sometimes, Environment Canterbury draws on its reserves to pay for work that is additional to budget, including some of our water management programmes.