Business panel claims it has found $2.8b in council savings

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Savings could be made on the City to Sea Bridge, pools, the Berhampore golf course, Wellington Zoo, cycleways, and libraries and other costs, claim the group.

Proposals to slash $2.8b in council spending have been floated by a panel of leading Wellington business people.

Louise Tong will outline potential Wellington City Council savings at a Vision for Wellington event on Thursday evening.

The proposals include cutting spending on staff, social housing, the Golden Mile, zoo, bus and cycle lanes. They were presented at a Vision for Wellington event on Thursday evening.

Speaking to The Post, one of the panelists, Infratil director Louise Tong, outlined where $2.8b could be saved over the coming decade covered by the council’s new long-term plan.

Other panelists were economist and Infometrics CEO Brad Olsen, Moore Wilson’s co-owner Julie Moore, and company director Paul Ridley-Smith.

Vision for Wellington launched in 2024 with various prominent members including former Wellington mayors Dames Kerry Prendergast and Fran Wilde, The Post owner Sinead Boucher and many others.

The group describes itself as non-political and says it is not running candidates in the upcoming council elections.

But Tong this week appeared to endorse mayoral candidate Ray Chung in a Facebook post.

Vision for Wellington members were previously criticised for lobbying government for intervention in the Wellington City Council.

Tong estimated $700m could be saved on council staffing by reducing the amount of planned increases, possible down-sizing, and losing staff via attrition. Certain units such as the climate change and communications teams could be cut back. Staff costs had increased 50% over five years to 2024, she said.

Chung this week claimed to have support from central government to renegotiate a social housing deal – something Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Housing Minister Chris Bishop poured cold water on.

That 2008 deal saw the government chip in $220m for half the upgrades of council social housing, with the council paying the other half. Now it has come time for council to honour its end, the cost has climbed to $439m.

Tong said the real cost, including operational and capital spending, was closer to $1b over 10 years to the council and the 2008 deal was the “worst deal ever”.

Mayor Tory Whanau recently led a blessing and sod-turning ceremony for the Golden Mile project but Vision for Wellington plans would see it stop about there.

But she said that, if the council could show financial prudence, the Government may be open to talking.

“You have to earn your right to sit at the table,” she said. At the very least, the council should get legal advice on renegotiating the deal, she said.

Past poor spending included largely unused electric car chargers, failing new board walks on Dixon St, $7m on a playground at Frank Kitts Park, Town Hall repairs, the central library, and the Tākina convention centre, she claimed.

Most of those were “sunk costs” but the subsidy for the Tākina convention centre could be reduced via either selling the building or making it multi-purpose, she said.

Tong also identified continued work on the Golden Mile, City Streets, and plans to quake-strengthen or demolish the Opera House, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Museum, and Freyberg Pool as potential cost savings.

Future budgets for community facilities could also take a $100m haircut, she said.

Likewise, the City to Sea Bridge, which the council wants to demolish, could be made quake-safe for about $2m – which was far cheaper than demolition or existing re-mediation plans. Te Ngākau/Civic Square works too could be done a lot cheaper, she said.

Other cost savings measures included ditching organic waste collections, a subsidy to the Berhampore golf course, a – council living wage subsidy for private employers, money to buy more reserve land, more cycleways, further work on the Golden Mile while costs for library and pool funding should be cut.

Wellington Zoo – “so people can go and see some monkeys in cages and cute otters” - should be closed and replaced with a playground, such as the Margaret Mahy Playground in Christchurch. The zoo hospital could be moved to Zealandia, she said.

There was at least one area where she proposed spending, however. For about a quarter of the cost of the rest of the Wellington cycleway rollout, she estimated a citywide network of bike paths through the green belt could be built.