Councils push back on Government’s plan for Combined Territories Boards

Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Submissions from the councils of Upper Hutt, Porirua and Wellington all opposed the Government’s proposal to replace regional councillors nationwide with Combined Territories Boards.

In the largest restructure of New Zealand’s local government in more than three decades, the Government announced in November its intention to abolish regional councillors and replace them with 11 Combined Territories Boards (CTBs) made up of local mayors, with voting power allocated proportionally to population.

CTBs would need to produce “Regional Reorganisation Plans” within the first two years, outlining how councils could work together more effectively.

In their respective draft submissions, the Upper Hutt, Porirua and Wellington regional councils all said they did not support replacing regional councils with a CTB.

Upper Hutt City Council’s submission, signed by mayor Peri Zee and chief executive Geoff Swainson, recommended that the Government remove CTBs as the replacement governance model for regional councils.

“This proposal seeks to fundamentally change the democratic system without a new election and requires mayors to do more roles than they were not elected for,” it said.

“The currently elected members, of regional councils, were elected by the community to take on specific roles in recognition of their interests and skills.”

Furthermore, asking mayors to formulate a reorganisation plan would require “major analytical capacity” – something smaller councils like Upper Hutt do not have, the submission continued.

They said a three-year timeframe would be more appropriate.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council’s draft submission “strongly disagreed” with the CTB model, saying it would lead to a “loss of democratic legitimacy, trust, and institutional knowledge” and stretch existing resources.

“There simply isn’t enough capacity for mayors to govern all regional work programmes,” it said.

“The local government sector already faces shortages in engineering, planning, environmental science and transport. Supporting a CTB while also responding to multiple reforms and maintaining core services would stretch capacity beyond safe operational limits.”

Regional councillors, the submission added, were elected with a clear mandate to govern regional functions. By contrast, mayors sitting on CTBs would face conflicts of interest, as they were likely to prioritise their own district’s interest over those of the wider region.

They also disagreed with proportional voting, saying weighted voting would work against that regional perspective, create inequity between territorial authorities and marginalise smaller councils.

Porirua City Council’s draft submission, signed by mayor Anita Baker, described the proposal as “one of a number of ad-hoc, poorly aligned reforms” the Government was making on local government.

They demonstrated “a lack of understanding of the role and functions of local government” and “a fundamental lack of respect for community voice”.

While the Porirua council supported developing regional reorganisation plans, they should be prepared jointly by iwi, regional council and local councils with public input.

“We have significant concerns that the Government’s review of regional councils’ roles and functions is being undertaken without engagement with territorial authorities, regional councils and iwi partners.”

Submissions on the proposal close on Friday.

Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air