Simplifying Local Government

What is local government?

New Zealand currently has 78 councils. There are two overlapping systems of local government and two different types of councils. One type is called a regional council and the other type is called a ‘territorial authority’ – known commonly as city or district councils.

Some areas have combined their councils into one ‘unitary authority’ including Auckland Council, Chatham Islands Council, Gisborne District Council, Marlborough District Council, Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council.

Regional councils are led by a chairperson and look after the 'big picture' environmental issues for the whole region like air quality, water quality, the health of lakes, rivers, and coastal areas, and managing pests. They are also responsible for public transport and play a key role in transport planning. There are 11 regional councils.

City and district councils are led by mayors and provide the day-to-day services and facilities for your local community, such as roads, rubbish collection, libraries, and parks. They also decide where and how new housing, businesses, and infrastructure can be built. There are 67 city and district councils.

For example, if you live in Kaiapoi, your two councils are Canterbury Regional Council and Waimakariri District Council. Each is governed by a separate set of elected councillors and run by separate chief executives, who employ separate staff. Both councils set rules for your area that influence what people and businesses can do (e.g., where you can build and how it must be built).

Why do we need to change things?

Two things have led to the Government developing this proposal.

Firstly, having two types of councils operating in the same area is complex, confusing, and costly. For example:

• While you might know your mayor, could you name the chairperson of your regional council?
• We have heard councils struggle to attract key staff as they compete for similar skills in the same area. For example, some regions may have Department of Conservation park rangers, regional council park rangers, and city/district council park rangers.
• Councils don’t always work together well – there are examples of them contesting each other’s rules and decisions in court.
• Some projects will require developers to obtain consent from two or more councils for the same project which can be complicated and confusing.

Secondly, we’re thinking of the future. The Government’s resource management reform and other changes (like water services reform and climate adaptation) will change how councils operate in the future. Resource management reform will bring more consistency across regional councils’ functions. More activities will be permitted by default, reducing the work of councils in both planning and consenting. The Government has also announced plans to centralise some regional council functions as part of the new resource management system (for example, a national compliance regulator).

Both of these issues mean it is a good time to review how our councils work to see if there are better ways to do things.

What's being proposed?

The Government has developed a proposal to make local government simpler, more efficient, and better value for money.

Step one

Step one is to make mayors (or another city or district councillor) you already elect come together as a board to represent a region. This ‘combined territories board’ or ‘CTB’ would mean you no longer need separate regional councillors and the existing set would be removed. Alternative options are to include a Crown Commissioner on the CTB (with either a majority vote, a veto power, or an observer role only) or to replace regional councillors with Crown Commissioners in the short term.

Step two

Step two is to require the mayors on the CTB (or the Crown Commissioners) to review how your councils work together and come up with a plan for more effectively delivering services on behalf of you and your region.

These two steps are discussed in more detail later in this document.