What happens when you change the function of local government, the span of local government, the shape of local government and the local government ministry – fast and all at once?
Councils all over the country were already implementing the water services reforms – Local Water Done Well. In the Wellington region that’s Tiaki Wai. A significant chunk of council’s assets and business are moving into the new entity and the transition involves the establishment of the new company, agreeing the operating model, and the development of new billing and CRM systems. A special team has been set up within Council to oversee the transition through 2026.
Throughout 2025 the government introduced a slew of other changes to lower the cost of local government, limit the regulatory functions, and narrow the mandate to align with governments focus on growth and development. This includes:
- Building System Reform – requiring fast consent turnaround, streamlining consenting authorities, shifting more liability to property owners and enabling self-certification of building professionals
- Funding and Financing Reforms – enabling new ways of paying for infrastructure including private capital models and targeted rating of new developments.
- Emergency Management Bill – setting minimum standards of emergency management, strengthening the expected role of communities and iwi and requiring new hazard information on property reports.
- Resource Management Act reform – proposing greater standardisation, national direction, and centralisation with less discretion for councils in plan making. Fewer activities will require a resource consent reflecting both the narrowed scope of the system and an intention to shift away from consenting before works are undertaken to strengthened monitoring after the fact. There will be a significant reduction of the compliance, monitoring, and enforcement functions of regional councils. This function will be undertaken by a new centralised environmental regulator and planning tribunal.
- Rates Capping – government is proposing a rates cap of 2 to 4% with limited exceptions, with legislation planned for December 2026.
- A new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) – bringing together the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the Ministry of Transport, and local government functions from the Department of Internal Affairs into one new agency to combine the key levers that shape growth and productivity.
The biggie announced on November 25th is Simplifying Local Government, the most significant reform of local government since 1989. The proposal includes removing elected members from regional councils, replacing them with a panel of regional Mayors. This panel will be tasked with developing a plan to reorganise all councils in that region within two years. These plans would assess how councils across a region can best work together to deliver efficient and effective local infrastructure, public services, and regulatory functions. Options include shared services, council-owned companies, or merging territorial authorities to form new unitary councils (the latter being the front runner in the Wellington region). Alongside this the government is reviewing regional council functions to see if any are no longer necessary or should be provided centrally. Final plans would be approved by the Minister of Local Government, rather than through polls or referenda. Consultation on these proposals is open until 20 February with legislation drafted in March 2026.
What does all of this mean?
In a nutshell government wants Councils to do less and to cost less. There is a strong theme of centralised planning for growth and development, and the limiting of local level environmental controls. There will be less regulation at both building consent and resource management levels
and limited local enforcement. National standardisation, centralisation of policy direction and regional scale planning are key themes. A shift towards private investment, and individual property rights and risks and away from acknowledging the Treaty of Waitangi is also signalled. The rates cap is likely to result in reduced levels of service and increased user charges.
What really strikes me is the lack of imagination.
Internationally, local government is replacing piped streams with natural waterways to better manage stormwater and flooding risk, sparking economic vitality by promoting residential use of commercial and retail zones, making cities carbon neutral to decrease reliance on the national grid, undertaking tree planting in city centres to reduce temperatures and bring people on to the streets, making public transport free to get cities moving without spending billions on new roading, using participatory budgeting to help people understand the cost of public services, and securing undeveloped land within city boundaries to protect biodiversity and create the wild spaces future generations will enjoy.
Meanwhile, in my view, the government is sticking to small thinking, doubling down on approaches that have already failed to solve increasingly complex problems. A critical role of local government is to think intergenerationally, to make decisions now to protect ecosystems that will sustain us in the future, and to plan for communities that enhance the lives of those who live in them. The stripping back of local government both risks local democracy now and undermines our stewardship of our beautiful city.