Prosperity gap in Auckland has changed little - south and west lag

Wednesday, 18 November 2020

Newshub's Simon Shepherd reports on part one of 'A tale of two cities', looking at the parts of Auckland with the lowest scores on the prosperity index.

A new two-yearly assessment of Auckland's economic health has found little change in the prosperity gap between the poorer southern and western suburbs, and the rest of the region.

The Prosperity Index produced by the city’s economic development agency ATEED found “the same eight local boards make up the eight lowest ranked areas for Household Prosperity, as in the previous report”.

The median household income in the Māngere-Ōtāhuhu local board area is $76,900, 40 per cent below that in the wealthiest local board area, Orakei, of $129,100.

The proportion on a benefit in the Manurewa local board is 13.7 per cent, nearly double the Auckland average, and five times the 2.6 per cent rate in Upper Harbour.

* Auckland Council: Has the super city merger brought prosperity or pain?

* Coronavirus: Why South Auckland is the worst place for the return of Covid-19 community transmission

Manukau ward Auckland councillor Efeso Collins.

“Key features of both (south and west) are the below-average performance with regard to the skills acquisition of young people and the workforce, as well as the limited opportunities to access skilled, well-paying employment locally,” said the new report.

“Really depressed,” was the response of Manukau ward councillor Efeso Collins to the picture painted.

“To see what continues to be the demarcation of the vulnerable and poor in south Auckland, in a city doing well otherwise,” Collins told Stuff.

“We as civic leaders need to ask whether we are doing enough,” he said.

Pam Ford, ATEED’s general manager of economic development, said the Index was compiled pre Covid-19, and was the evidence base for new work to be released shortly.

Ford said during Covid-19 the agency and the council’s southern initiative group, renamed Community and Social Innovation (CSI), had looked closely at the data on how Māori and Pasifika would be impacted.

“The Index is a catalyst to get emphasis at a central Government level to focus on those areas that are showing as less prosperous” said Ford, who described Auckland as a “region of regions”.

Ōtara is one of the southern suburbs unchanged at the bottom of the prosperity index

The 183-page report is based on 2018 census data and additional data, compiled for ATEED by Infometrics.

The first edition of the prosperity report in 2018 was outlined in “A Tale of two Cities”, a project by Stuff and Newshub.

The 2020 findings underline the unchanged challenge facing Auckland Council, which identified the need to lift the quality of life in the south as one of its two strategic priorities, called The Southern Initiative.

The blend of low household income, low skills and employment, categorised as “low prosperity”, took in the sweep of local board areas Maungakiekie-Tāmaki, Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Ōtara-Papatoetoe, Manurewa, and Papakura.

The Kumeu Film Studio in northwest Auckland is seen by ATEED as an economic boost for the west.

The report highlights some small improvements in the gap between the top and the bottom ranked areas.

“While the regional level of internet access at home is up from 82 per cent in 2013 to 90 per cent in 2018, the Low Prosperity local board areas have closed the gap from 12-percentage points in 2013 to 7-percentage points by 2018,” it said.

There has also been a narrowing of the gap in the proportion of workers with NCEA Level 3.

“Between 2013 and 2018 Auckland saw a 5-percentage point increase in workers with a NCEA Level 3 qualification while the lower prosperity areas saw a 10-percentage point increase,” said the report.

ATEED’s report did not name where Covid-19 is likely to have the biggest impact, but said it would hit certain sectors and parts of the city harder than others.

“We must be mindful of this when looking to support prosperity across the region, acknowledging that we are in a period of change and must be responsive to how the economic impact unfolds,” it said.

The report highlighted the quandry in the south, which is job-rich, but where skill and education are hurdles.

“The local labour force is not accessing these jobs to the extent one would expect and, as a result, unemployment and benefit dependency rates are high which in turn impacts on lower levels of household prosperity.” it said.

Educationalist Stuart Middleton, who pioneered running a blend of trade training and secondary education at the Manukau Institute of Technology, said the council-run Southern Initiative needs expanding.

“What it does is good but I don’t think it's been given an opportunity to play a large scale role,” he told Stuff in an interview looking at 10 years of Auckland Council, since amalgamation.

“We were going to see a flattening out of all the disadvantage in the south – it deserves to have a much wider scale,” said Middleton.