Auckland Mayor says compo for struggling Albert businesses too much for ratepayers to bear

Friday, 14 June 2019

City Rail Link construction is affecting businesses on central Auckland's Albert St (video first published April 2019).

Compensation is out of the question for Albert St businesses struggling to make money while trading alongside drawn out City Rail Link (CRL) works, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says.

Goff has weighed in on the Albert St controversy following a fiery meeting last Thursday, at which owners made another plea for financial relief before City Rail Link Limited (CRLL) chief executive Dr Sean Sweeney.

Business owners, some whom have unsuccessfully tried to sell up, are blaming elongated CRL works for losses, but Sweeney says the question of compensation is one for the Government and Auckland Council.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says financial compensation for businesses impacted by city works would 'impose significant costs on ratepayers and taxpayers' (file photo).

In a statement to Stuff, Goff indicated offering compensation would be a poor way to spend public money, instead suggesting landlords should drop their tenants' rent.

Business owners discuss the Impact of the City Rail Link construction in Albert Street, downtown Auckland. Business is down along with foot traffic (video first published May, 2017).

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Many businesses had been affected by the huge scale of construction across Auckland, with Goff saying he sympathised with the businesses and residents impacted.

'However, financial compensation has never been available to persons affected by this,' he said.

The bottom end of Albert St should be back to normal sometime in 2020 (file photo).

'If it were, given the scale of activities across the city, that would impose significant costs on ratepayers and taxpayers.'

Auckland Council and the Government, through the Finance and Transport ministers, are joint shareholders of CRLL, which is overseeing CRL's construction.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford has already said the particularly vocal cluster of Albert St businesses would not be compensated by the Government.

He refused to comment further when Stuff asked why the Government would not offer compensation.

Meanwhile, Goff said he had asked CRLL to 'mitigate the effects of construction on businesses and individuals'.

'The landlords of these businesses could also be approached to consider easing rents on those businesses which have been most affected,' he added.

'Property owners adjacent to the CRL line will gain significant benefits in terms of their property values and the value of leases and rents when the CRL opens.

'Being the beneficiaries of that windfall gain, they might be expected to be open to assistance to tenants during the construction period.'

At least one Albert St business owner told Stuff her landlord was already being tolerant, despite mounting rent arrears.

Asked whether he had met with aggrieved Albert St business owners, Goff, in a statement released by a spokesman, said: 'CRLL is the appropriate agency for affected parties to contact.'

'CRLL has met with Albert St business owners on multiple occasions, including at the meeting last Thursday, and is offering support to mitigate any disruption as required under its resource consent obligations.'

Last week, Sweeney admitted CRLL's communication of construction deadlines with Albert St businesses 'probably hasn't' been good enough.

'One thing that's happened is we've taken on a whole lot of extra work here to improve the quality of the streetscape – that's outside the original scope of the CRL,' Sweeney said.

'We could've just done our work and walked away and we would've been done by the end of this year, but then another crew would've come in a couple of weeks later.

'That's why the job is going on a lot longer.'

On Friday, CRLL released a statement confirming construction of the tunnels under Albert St was due to finish in July.

Backfilling the tunnel trench would be completed in October, meaning reinstatement of the first section of Albert St could start at end of winter and be completed in 2020.

Sweeney said while the end was near for CRL works at the harbour end of Albert St, construction on other sections of the project was ramping up.

'Further disruption will be unavoidable, but we are committed to minimising impacts and working with our partners to keep traffic, particularly bus services, moving through our work sites,' he said.