Auckland Council's Southern Hub on hold

Monday, 22 June 2020

Auckland Council plans for a new Southern Hub for council services will remain on hold.

Auckland Council says it will now have to come up with a new business case for its planned South Auckland services hub due to budget cutbacks.

The project was part of the Auckland Council's wider plan to increase efficiencies and offer more flexible services for customers. Under the proposal the council would sell a number of properties in the Auckland area and consolidate its key operations into three regional hubs.

The Auckland Council’s Corporate Property team had originally planned to sell Kotuku House in Manukau's Osterley Way to help pay for the Southern Hub project.

Staff from the consenting, compliance, licensing and support teams were expected to be relocated to a planned extension of the nearby Manukau Civic Building.

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But according to Auckland Council head of corporate property Rod Aitken it is now reviewing the proposal.

“Auckland Council’s Southern Hub project has been paused while we revisit our requirements, and put a revised business case together,” Aitken said. “We hope to have this completed over the next few months.”

A council spokesperson said because the proposal was still a work in progress details around timeframes and budgets won’t be finalised until the 2020/2021 budget is approved.

A 2018 report to the council’s Finance and Performance Committee which looked at its property portfolio said it was facing a mountain of deferred maintenance that was impacting on the working conditions of staff.

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“This ‘maintenance mountain’ appears to have been caused by a historic and continued under-investment in our corporate buildings.

“In many of our buildings we are forcing our staff to work in old, unproductive legacy working environments that owe their design origins to last century work-practices.”

The Southern Hub is one of a number of major projects that are facing funding cuts as part of the council’s emergency budget.

Mayor Phil Goff announced last month that the council was predicting a shortfall of over $500 million in revenue over the next financial year as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

This has meant the council is looking at cutting costs and deferring projects as it seeks to make up for the projected drop in revenue.