Ryan Bridge: Will rate caps actually work?

This rates cap, how's it actually going to work.

I had Luxon on my Herald show yesterday, an announcement's coming in the next few weeks.

But ask any Mayor, not the ones who like disco toilets and golden miles, but the ones who already to the basic stuff and little else. They're cutting their cloth.

Tim Macindoe in Hamilton. I spoke to the Tararua Mayor yesterday. They all say the same thing: we are doing the basics. We've cut the silly stuff. And we don't know how this is going to work without bankrupting local government.

RMA reforms will be a big part of this. Luxon's talking about amalgamation. If there are fewer consents needed or consents are streamlined, do we need so many councils with a back office bigger than Kim K's booty?

Probably not.

So less work, especially for regional councils, could lipo some cost out of the system.

Then there's the back office more generally.

The Tararua Mayor Scott Gilmore makes a good point about double up. We have 67 territorial authorities in New Zealand. All have their own finance departments, comms teams, legal - the full kit and caboodle.

Can they combine the back office and save some cash that way? He reckons they can, and to his credit, is already talking to the neighbours about doing just that.

But even with no frills and upkeep on the basics, residents are still steering down the barrel of double digit rates increases, or at least north of 7%, which, as we know, is more than inflation.

So a rates cap, like a move-on order for rowdy rough sleepers on Queen Street, might sound like a good idea.

But is it fixing a problem or simply moving it down the road for somebody else to clean up?

Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.