Wellington City Council stops looking for cleaning contractor, seeks to bring work in-house

Monday, 22 June 2026

A union group is celebrating and looking to take the battle further with the Wellington City Council pausing a cleaning contract tender while it looks at bringing the service in-house.

Unions Wellington, the increasingly powerful group that led the charge to stop the sale of the council’s Wellington Airport shares, has been campaigning for the council to bring contracted services including waste, cleaning, engineering, non-litigation legal and security in-house.

The confirmation came in a letter to the union this week from council chief infrastructure officer Jenny Chetwynd. The council had extended the current cleaning contract for two years but cancelled the tender process for a new contractor and would look at a long-term option to bring the service in-house, she said.

Unions Wellington convener Sabina Rizos-Shaw confirmed the group had cancelled legal action it threatened the council with earlier this year.

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'Over the next two years, we will organise workers, their union, and the wider community to ensure that cleaning services are first cab off the rank in the council's in-sourcing programme,“ Rizos-Shaw said.

“This is just the beginning for the Wellington Works campaign. There are many more opportunities at the council to take our local services back from private hands.”

Andrew Little ‒ a former union boss ‒ in 2025 campaigned on and signed a Unions Wellington commitment to begin investigating in-sourcing council services. Soon after being elected as mayor, his triennium plan included the plan to “consider options for in-sourcing where cost-effective”.

Unions Wellington in March threatened legal action after council boss Matt Prosser started the cleaning tender process despite a unanimous vote from the mayor and councillors to look at bringing it in-house.

Labour councillor Sam O’Brien, who in March succeeded in getting through the amendment for council staff to explore options to bring cleaning services in-house, was “stoked” with the confirmation. Reducing the council’s reliance on contractors needed to be a top priority. It would be looked at seriously via the upcoming long-term plan, he said.

'The privatisation of council services has been a failed experiment which has led to higher costs and lower quality services for ratepayers and residents,“ he said.

Mayor Andrew Little said it was best to look at bringing contracts in-house when they were renewed, as was now happening with cleaning.

“Some obvious contracts to consider bringing in house are cleaning and traffic management. We already have an in-house legal team,” he said.

“The role of councillors is to scrutinise the work of officers in this regard. The council does not typically approve specific contracts but they must comply with council’s policies.”

Unions Wellington in May released a report intended as a blue-print for in-housing contracted services and claiming the council could save significant money at a time Wellington City rates were surging.

“A contractor is not a charity; their bid must include a profit margin ‒ typically ranging from 10 to 20% ‒ to satisfy shareholders and owners,” it says. Decades of contracting meant the council had lost in-house knowledge of what services should cost, leaving it open to “price gouging”.