Council turns focus to a city deal with incoming government

Monday, 27 November 2023

Transport, the inner-city, earthquake strengthening and affordable housing are the mayor’s priorities for a city deal with the new Government. (File photo)

As Let’s Get Wellington Moving hits a central government roadblock, the Wellington City Council is turning its focus to a possible city deal.

City deals – where councils and central government enter long-term arrangements to fund major infrastructure projects – were a pillar of National’s infrastructure policy at the election and a recommendation of the Future for Local Government Review.

The model of funding partnership between local and central government originated in the United Kingdom and has been popular in Australia, with many city deals signed over the past decade.

Each arrangement, negotiated between central government and councils, is unique to the local circumstances. Items have included train lines, expanded harbours, revitalised city squares, educational or business precincts, and climate change mitigation measures like increased shade cover.

Mayor Tory Whanau said she would be talking to the new government “over the coming months” to discuss priorities and hoped to get the “best deal for Wellington”.

Mayor Tory Whanau says she will be working to get the “best deal possible” for the city. (File photo)

“The things I will prioritise for Wellington are improving transport, revitalising our inner city, support for earthquake strengthening and more affordable housing,” she said.

Whanau believed her priorities were areas where funding could unlock Wellington’s potential to be “a hub of innovation and creativity”.

At an infrastructure conference in June, incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon described city deals as a partnership “to create long-term pipelines of regional projects” through funding agreements.

National’s policy would involve bespoke city and region deals across the country, and negotiations would begin shortly after the election.

According to policy documents the deals would involve items including “road, rail, public transport, housing, and environmental resilience investments” and councils were urged to put together a list of priority projects immediately.

Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive and former mayor of Porirua Nick Leggett said there was “enormous opportunity” for cities in inking a deal with the Government.

Nick Leggett, chief executive of Infrastructure New Zealand, says there is an “enormous opportunity” to improve the relationship between local and central government.

“At present we have a lopsided model where the benefits of economic development mostly go to central government while local government bears most of the cost.”

Funding tools where local government was given more of a share of GST from specific housing developments as well as more opportunity for user pays charges should be on the table, he hoped.

The deals should be less about wish lists, Leggett said, and more about long-term success over the next 10 to 15 years.

Behind the scenes the council has already been working on a list of possible priorities for a city deal.

Earlier in the month, Wellington City Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow told councillors that regional leaders had been meeting to develop “a strong and strategic spatial plan for the region that articulates the infrastructural need and housing supply needs”.

The hope was that a co-ordinated plan would put the Wellington region in a “strong position collectively” to work on a deal with the incoming government.

For the city specifically, “we are actively thinking about [a city deal],” said McKerrow, “but we also have to think about how we build the right kind of relationship first, in order to enter into those conversations”.