Reform of Local Government in Wellington
Date Added: 21st November 2011 from Wellington Employers' Chamber of Commerce
The Wellington Employers Chamber of Commerce has long advocated some form of amalgamation in Wellington. The benefits are not just the savings from reduced duplication and economies of scale. These are probably quite minor in the overall scheme of things.
The most important benefit of structural change is the improved decision making and strategic capacity that would result. Decisions would be made for the benefit of the region as a whole rather than in the parochial interest of each territorial local authority. Too often the politics of rival neighbouring cities and districts result in bad decisions from a regional perspective. Furthermore, regional decisions are often delayed because of the territorial battles that occur.
For example – When it comes to prioritising the construction of regional roads Wellington city businesses and rate-payers generally rank Transmission Gully (or whatever alternative should run up the coast) high up the list. For a variety of reasons individual councils would rather see roads within their boundary prioritised (Wellington City Council, for example, might not want to facilitate potential rate-payers living in another TLA) Decisions made from a regional perspective would not only result in better outcomes but would be more in line with citizen’s wishes.
Where facilities are located is a factor. Wellington City recently built a $47 million Indoor Community Sports Centre in Kilbirnie. Lo and behold a smaller one has just been built in Hutt City.
A single regulatory authority would reduce compliance costs and make interacting with councils easier for business and developers. A one-stop shop - a single set of rules and point of contact for businesses would make it much easier to do business.
As the proposal notes, the Wellington region is a series of cities and towns which have a high degree of interdependence in terms of economic and social flows but which all operate as independent legal and planning entities. In spite of these boundaries, Wellingtonians see themselves as Wellingtonians. The Wellington urban area is more relevant to them than the arbitrary TLA boundaries.
Notwithstanding this, it is vital that councils remain well connected to rate-payers so that there is local, community-based decision making. And this is the beauty of the model being proposed.
It is a two-tiered structure where decisions with regional implications including rating decisions are elevated to the top tier and local services and community functions are operated at the lower tier. It is possible to maintain the advantages of local decision making under the proposal while capturing the strategic and efficiency benefits from a larger region-wide authority. This is also the option floated in the PriceWaterhouse report that the chamber preferred when it considered this issue last year.
The proposal would significantly reduce the number of councillors (currently 100 in eight TLAs and the Regional Council) as well as other costs. But steps would have to be taken to ensure that savings made from amalgamation are passed back to rate-payers and not spent elsewhere. The last thing we want is the creation of a new super bureaucracy.
Steps would also need to be taken to ensure Wellington’s large commercial rating base was not allowed to subsidise other parts of the region. Wellington businesses already pay too much in rates. The proposal suggests that the funding formulae could ensure that rates are spent in the area they are collected.
Wellington must move fast to adopt a structure for local government governance that best suits its needs. The status quo is not an option. Some form of structural change is needed preferably in time for the 2013 local body election. We are fortunate that we have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the Auckland super city.
In the best interests of Wellington it is time to put rivalries aside. This isn’t the biggest game in town for growing the Wellington economy but it is one worth pursuing and the Chamber is right behind it. At the end of the day we are all Wellingtonians now!
