Selwyn District Council is on track to collect millions more in rates than planned this year due to continued growth and unexpectedly high property revaluations.
It is also set to underdeliver on its capital projects programme.
The first finance and performance committee meeting of the term last week provided budget progress from July until to the end of October.
Head of financial operations Beka Hammond said there was a variance of $1.3m in general rates “due to higher number of rateable properties now in the region” and the property revaluations earlier this year being higher than predicted in the long-term plan.
By the end of the financial year, it is forecast to be $3.6m over budget.
The targeted rates were $1m below budget due to the timing of water meter charges, Hammond said.
Fees and charges were tracking $2.9m above budget mainly from building consents of high value building projects and government levies, Hammond said.
Council expenditure was at $58.8m, against the budget of $62.6m.
Personnel costs were down $1.1m, and it was noted there are 37 active roles being recruited and 13 roles being on hold.
Councillor Samuel Wilshire wanted clarification if the saving on personnel costs so far had translated to the above budget spend on consultants.
Strategy, engagement and capability executive director Steve Gibling said it was dependent on "the role that's been vacated and the type of work that's needed".
"They still need to do work in that space to get the right structure, so they will employ a contractor and consultant to keep the mahi going.
"In other cases, there is just consultancy work that we need to bring in because of the expertise.”
Councillor John Verry raised concern that the cost of consultant and legal services “were creeping up and we have only started the year”.
The figures showed the council had spent $5.62m on commercial and corporate services, above the budget of $5.39.
Mayor Lydia Gliddon noted those figures were well down on last year – when the council had spent $8.2m at the same stage in 2024/25.
Borrowing was up to $315m, an increase of $20m since June to fund capital expenditure, which was tracking $11.6m under budget.
There was $146m in capital projects, around 400 in total, budgeted for 2025/26.
Head of capital works David Spriggs said the council was behind on delivery already and forecast to complete only 74%, due to holdups or changes to a number of significant projects, such as Leeston’s Whata Rau where “the consultation process has taken longer than what was anticipated” delaying construction.
Another example was the Hoskyns Rd widening, where the budget was $4.7m, but it was now estimated to cost $3.7m.
Gliddon pointed out “timing challenges, not necessarily efficiencies” with the year-to-date budgets and was looking forward to staff including budget forecasting and the departmental breakdowns in future reports.
Chairing his first meeting, councillor Aaron McGlinchey signalled a change to the detail in the reports coming to the committee to a performance-based reporting process.
“Rather than just showing us tables of numbers and percentages, we also want to see what is the outcomes from the spending.
“That's going to be a shift that we'll be seeing in future meetings.”
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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