About the Reforms

The coalition Government is making large scale changes to local government - the biggest shakeup in a generation. This is likely to change what functions and services we offer in the coming years, as well as how much we charge.

Legislation changes include the Resource Management Act, changes to the role and shape of regional councils, the Building Act, Emergency Management system, development levies, and regulation around rates capping and how this is applied.

These reforms all interact, and we will work carefully to understand any potential impacts on our community in terms of service provision as well as cost.

Reform is far from something councils wish to avoid – in fact the sector has been calling for this for years. We look forward to working collaboratively with central government on these changes.

This is an exciting opportunity to improve how local government delivers planning, infrastructure, environmental management and public services to support our districts future prosperity.

Although we agree at a high level on change being required, we are wary some of the proposals may not be in the best interests of our community and will be responding with our thoughts on changes which we do not see as benefiting Waimakariri.

For Waimakariri, key areas of reform that will affect our District include:

What Matters to Waimakariri

Our Council sees these reforms as an exciting opportunity to update the local government system to be more efficient and reflective of the needs of our communities.

As always, our focus is on the needs of Waimakariri and making sure local voices are heard and understood by decision makers.

These proposed reforms look likely to significantly change the function and shape of local government and service provision.

However, what they don’t address is how any new responsibilities will be funded.

The reality is that most local government income comes from rates. Any reform needs to also provide new funding avenues from central Government to address New Zealand’s national infrastructure deficit and more fairly spread the tax take across communities.

Over the years, successive government reports have confirmed that local government funding and financing needs changes made. It simply is not sustainable to rely on rates alone.

Local government has been pushing for new tools such as the Crown paying rates for the services they use, as well as the GST charged on rates being returned to councils.

These alone would provide a huge relief to ratepayers while allowing districts to thrive. The only requirement being that central Government pay for the services they use – just like households.

The Government has committed to other new tools, including city and regional deals, GST sharing on new housing, and a Regional Infrastructure Fund.

However, we are yet to see how these could or will be applied to our District and what it will mean for ratepayers.

With such large scale reform our concern is that any proposals could come at the expense of local accountability. One thing Council is certain of, and we have seen it with Three Waters reform, is that our communities are well informed.

Whatever changes come about, maintaining that connection, accessibility, and accountability to our communities must remain paramount and this will be a big theme in our submission to government and when we lobby for improvements to the draft legislation.

More information / Resources:

Simpson Grierson News and Insights section

RMA reform:

• https://environment.govt.nz/what-government-is-doing/areas-of-work/resource-management/resource-management-system-reform/
• https://environment.govt.nz/acts-and-regulations/acts/natural-and-built-environment-act-and-spatial-planning-act/

Rates capping / Simplifying Local Government:

• https://www.dia.govt.nz/Local-Government-Policy
• https://www.dia.govt.nz/Local-Government-Review
• LGNZ Simplifying Local Government Process
• Simpson Grierson: Proposed Regional Governance overhaul – implications and opportunities

Development Levies:

• https://www.dia.govt.nz/Development-Contributions-and-Levies

Local Government New Zealand explainers:

• Emergency Management Explainer
• Rates Target Model Explainer
• Resource Management Reform Explainer
• Building System Explainer
• Simplifying Local Government Process
• Funding and Financing Explainer