Year after year councils show they are incapable of restraining their spending voluntarily, it’s more than time New Zealand joined Australia and the UK in imposing rate caps on them.
The Taxpayers’ Union has a petition asking the government to cap rates at no more than the rate of inflation.
You can head over to Cap Rates Now to add your signature to those seeking the restraint on spending that councils require.
It would be good if the government also required councils to be audited for their infrastructure the way they are for their finances.
It might not stop them spending on shiny things rather than the basics but at least we’d know they were doing it.
Apropos of councils’ propensity for economic sabotage, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says:
. . . It is an inarguable, and sometimes uncomfortable, fact that local government has been one of the largest barriers to housing growth in New Zealand.
It took nearly five years for councils to implement the NPS-UD and MDRS. To say they dragged their feet is an understatement.
In this time, Christchurch City Council just outright defied its legal obligations, voting to ignore the MDRS altogether. The last Government used RMA intervention powers just to make them do it.
The Council then spent years and a large amount of money arguing for special exemptions, ignoring clear directives from central government.
Auckland Council wasn’t much better. Yes, the Auckland floods caused delays, and yes, the cancellation of Light Rail had an impact on their plan. But they used every excuse in the book to stall progress.
I am convinced that if we had not come to an agreement on PC78, Auckland would still be dragging its heels — and many of these future homes would still be stuck on paper.
Wellington isn’t perfect, either. It took the most high-profile district-plan lobbying campaign in New Zealand history, and some very committed councillors like Rebecca Matthews, to get a plan in place that actually supports and enables growth.
Sadly, some council planning departments are basically a law unto themselves. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have told me awful stories about battles with council planners who try and micro-manage every little element of a housing development.
Where the planter boxes on the driveway will be located. The architectural design of the new garage. Which way the living room is designed. Whether front doors should face the street in order to create “neighbourliness” or whether they should face away from the street in order to create “seclusion and privacy.”
We have had decades of local councils trying to make housing someone else’s problem, and we have a planning system that lets them get away with it.
So, what do we do? We fix the system.
A streamlined planning system that requires housing growth – not just permits it – is the answer. Standardised zoning, housing growth targets, and less red tape solve this problem.
What they don’t solve, however, is the time it takes to reform our planning system. Councils won’t start work on their new plans under our new system until 2027.
And while we can’t legislate to fast-forward time, we can’t afford to wait either.
That’s why today, I’m announcing that we will be adding a new tool to our growth toolkit.
Cabinet has agreed to insert a new regulation making power into the RMA, allowing us to modify or remove provisions in local council plans if they negatively impact economic growth, development capacity, or employment.
Prior to exercising this power, the Minister must carry out an investigation into the provision in question, consider its consistency with existing national direction under the RMA, and engage with the local authority.
We believe this strikes the appropriate balance between the local and national interest.
This new regulation making power is only an interim measure, and is intended to only be in place until our new planning system comes into effect. We intend to add this as an amendment to the RMA Amendment Bill currently before Parliament, expected to pass into law in the next few weeks.
We know that this is a significant step. But the RMA’s devolution of ultimate power to local authorities just has not worked.
New Zealanders elected us with a mandate to deliver economic growth and rebuild our economy, and that’s exactly what this new power will help do.
We aren’t willing to let a single line in a district plan hold back millions or billions in economic potential. If local councillors don’t have the courage to make the tough decisions, we will do it for them.
Let me be absolutely clear: the days of letting councils decide that growth shouldn’t happen at all are over. . .
Expensive and time consuming planning processes contribute to unaffordable development, expensive housing and unaffordable rates.
If councils can’t, or won’t, change from a culture of no, the government must step in to say yes.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
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