Capital concerns - the highs and lows of the council’s annual residents survey

Thursday, 26 June 2025

What was once known as the Wellington Residents Satisfaction Survey has quietly, over time, become the Wellington Residents Monitoring Survey, with this year’s results a hint why the former title may have been shelved.

Residents surveys are used to gauge community satisfaction with council performance, services and facilities, and perceptions about various aspects of the town or city they live in. Wellington’s first residents satisfaction survey was held in 1994.

Many regions, including Lower Hutt, Christchurch, Clutha, Horowhenua, South Taranaki and Marlborough, continue to measure their residents opinions in annual “satisfaction” surveys.

Wellington, not so much; with the title of the capital’s annual Q + A offering nary a clue as to what exactly it’s monitoring.

But dig deeper and it is all about the level of satisfaction, or otherwise: dissatisfaction about the look, feel and vibe of the capital is reflective of a noticeable shift in sentiment over the last decade.

Like previous years, the 2025 survey is a revealing read, especially when it comes to the council’s own performance.

While overall satisfaction with the council’s performance (across the year) was up on 2023 (32%) and 2024 (29%), the numbers were still low, with just over a third (36%) of respondents saying they were satisfied in 2025.

Break that down further and only 10% were “very satisfied”,with another 26% “somewhat satisfied”. More than half (52%) were either “somewhat” or “very dissatisfied”. Fence-sitters—the neither satisfied or dissatisfied—totalled 12%.

Decision-making was another area that, while tracking slightly better than previous years is hardly cause for celebration, with a paltry 23% either agreeing or “strongly” agreeing the council made decisions that were in the best interests of the city.

A quarter basically had no opinion, leaving more than half (52%) unhappy with what was apparently being foisted on them. Just 31% said they understood how the council made decisions, while 51% said they didn’t.

Around the same number of people (44%) felt the council was proactive in informing residents about their city, or not (35%). Similarly there was a fairly even split when it came to whether or not residents felt they had adequate opportunity to have a say in council activities (decision-making, day to day services, engagement activities, consultations) with a thumbs up from 36% and thumbs down from 40%.

Respondents who said they were less than chipper with council’s performance over the past year were asked to explain why. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the antipathy towards supposed nice-to-haves from some quarters, excessive spending/non-essential spending topped the list with 33% rating it their number one peeve.

That was followed by concerns over priorities and essential infrastructure (31%), unhappiness with the mayor and councillors (30%) and frustration at the cycle lane roll-out (29%). Conversely just 6% of respondents cited incompetence and inefficiency as a concern. A quarter of comments noted concerns about rates or rates increases as a reason for their dissatisfaction.

Questions around governance and performance also threw up a number of demographic differences. Takapū/Northern ward residents—represented by councillors Ben McNulty, John Apanowicz and Tony Randle—were the grumpiest and generally less likely to agree with the statements (67%). Those from Paekawakawa/Southern ward, the stomping ground of deputy mayor Laurie Foon and councillor Nureddin Abdurahman, and Pukehīnau/Lambton (Nicola Young, Iona Pannett, Geordie Rogers) were generally more likely to agree, 47% and 42% respectively.

Age also played a part in how the council’s performance was perceived, with the dissatisfied lobby increasing with advancing years; respondents 45+ were more likely to be dissatisfied with performance than those under 45 by almost two to one (68% vs 38%).

Acknowledging there were areas the council had to do better Mayor Tory Whanau said she was also heartened that Wellingtonians continued to value many of the services it provided.

The Post also approached each councillor for comment.

Takapū/Northern ward’s McNulty said its residents had a fundamentally different relationship with Wellington than other wards, given its closest border was 10km away from the city centre, evident by it having the lowest attendance for arts activities within the survey.

“With this council having an overt focus on the city centre, at the expense of the suburbs, it’s not at all surprising to see higher levels of dissatisfaction,” he said.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Wharangi/Onslow-Western ward, councillor Diane Calvert suggested the survey was no longer just a “satisfaction” check-in, but a warning light.

“Year after year, residents have told us they’re losing trust in council decision-making and this year is no different. Only 23% believe decisions are made in the city’s best interest. It’s not a blip unfortunately, it’s a pattern over the past five years.

“The mayor and her cohorts have continued to push their own projects despite Wellingtonians’ core concerns such as infrastructure, safety, and financial concerns go unanswered. Residents remain frustrated, and rightly so. This survey reflects that frustration. It’s time the council stopped dismissing these results and started responding to them as some of us want to do.”

Tim Brown, whose Motukairangi/Eastern ward takes in an area that stretches from Roseneath to Kilbirnie and Miramar, expected people to dispute individual council decisions, but was disappointed that more than half felt the decisions being made weren’t in the city’s best interests.

The fact that council processes and decisions were often complicated and made “via some quite inflammatory and aggressive debate”, could be a turn off, he said.

“The lesson I would take from this is (a) we need to ask ‘why’ when people express a negative views about council and (b) we definitely need to think about how we explain decisions, recognising that we probably can’t stop acrimonious debate”.

The Post asked a Wellington resident under 45 and a resident over 45 what they thought of the survey.

“As someone over 45, I can definitely see why there’s some skepticism. I mean, it’s not exactly a shocker that younger folks are more satisfied; let's face it, they probably have more time to enjoy the parks, while us over 45s are busy dodging potholes, angry lycra- clad cyclists and muttering under our breath about rate increases. As for the Southern and Lambton wards being all smiles and sunshine, that’s not quite the reality I’m hearing. The people I speak to there are far from happy campers—they’re more like ‘grumpy hikers’ when it comes to council decisions. It’s a bit like the council is playing favourites with the city centre, while the outer suburbs are left wondering when their turn is coming.” Wharangi/Onslow-Western resident, aged 45+

“As a 28-year-old renter I’m not as completely downbeat about council as others seem to be. Sure, there’s always things to improve on, but credit where credit is due, Council gets a fair bit of stuff done that I don’t have to worry as much about. Information is easy enough to get and the council socials team does really well to keep things entertaining and own their engagement.

The focus on the arts and creative sector in Wellington is a real advantage and something that young people really value. There’s always lots going on that caters for the full spectrum of different people’s interests. Young people are busy, and don’t always have time to use all the various services, but we also don’t go looking for something to whinge about either. I’m stoked that more has been done around housing and transport.That’s the stuff I care most about.“ Pukehīnau/Lambton ward resident, under 45