Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says he’s “comfortable” with progress in his first two months after the Governing Body approved his 2023/24 budget proposal for consultation with Aucklanders and endorsed his proposed Letters of Expectation to Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) and Ports of Auckland Ltd (POAL).

But he said much more needs to be done to stop the Auckland Council group from wasting money, fix Auckland’s broken transport system and begin work on a plan that will return more of Auckland’s publicly owned waterfront land to the region’s people for mixed use.

The Governing Body today approved the 2023/24 budget proposal which bridges Auckland Council’s $295 million budget hole, through six key levers:

1. An average rates-rise of just 4.66% across the region, which will raise about $71 million extra

2. Cuts, savings and efficiencies of $44 million from the Auckland Council parent, $16 million from Local Boards, $25 million from Auckland Transport (AT), $27.5 million from Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and $5 million from Eke Panuku

3. A further $12.5 million of cuts, savings and efficiencies to be identified by the Expenditure Control and Procurement Committee

4. An estimated annual net gain of $48 million from the sale of the council’s minority shareholding in Auckland International Airport Ltd, calculated by saving the $88 million annual cost of holding the shares, less estimated annual dividends of $40 million

5. Another $10 million in POAL’s expected dividend for 2023/24

6. A borrowing facility of up to $75 million, of which around $36 million is currently expected to be drawn

The Mayor’s Letters of Expectation, which will be made available publicly before Christmas, will require the following:

Auckland Transport

• A fundamental change of approach at AT, requiring it to deeply understand and respond to what matters most to Aucklanders in transport

• Get the most out the existing transport network

• Reduce Auckland Transport’s cost to Council

• Deliver a better approach to traffic management: reduce developers’ footprints on roads and enable fewer orange cones

• Take direction and oversight from Council

• Support the development of a joined-up, comprehensive transport plan, written by Aucklanders

• Improve performance on resource consent report delays and reduce the costs of development

Eke Panuku

• Deliver priority urban regeneration projects to ensure tangible public benefits and local ownership of the projects

• Contribute to plans for port’s waterfront land

• Improve commercial return, support council to develop principles governing its property ownership, and assess the case for consolidating management of non-service properties/group property functions

• Reduce corporate costs by becoming a smaller, more focused agency

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

• Deliver a plan for a single operator for Auckland’s four main stadiums (the council-owned Mt Smart Stadium, North Harbour Stadium and Western Springs Stadium plus independent Eden Park) by 1 July 2023

• Identify a timeline for integrating Auckland’s cultural institutions (those currently managed by Tātaki, plus the independent Auckland War Memorial Museum, MOTAT and Stardome Observatory)

• Focus on key events and facilities that are highly valued by Aucklanders, rather than branding and economic development

• Reduce Tataki Auckland Unlimited’s reliance on council rates-based funding

Watercare

• Progress as required on Government’s Three Waters program (with government funding), but to the extent possible preserve ability to implement alternative water reform arrangements if legislation is repealed

• Develop local growth charges

• Maintain low water costs for ratepayer users by delivering value for money and ensuring cost effectiveness

• Continue to meet targets relating to climate, drought resilience and supply

• Improve performance on resource consent report delays and reduce the costs of development

POAL

• Continue to actively focus on improvement in worker health, safety and well being

• Improve financial performance against specified financial measures

• Deliver free cash flows and dividends to the Council as shareholder

• Support Council-led process to provide certainty on future of Port land, including a plan to return waterfront land to people of Auckland

• Move container freight to rail

“This is a lot of progress in two months to deliver on my campaign promises of finishing existing projects before starting new ones, stop wasting money, taking back control of CCOs and returning Auckland’s publicly owned waterfront land to the people of our region,” Mayor Brown said.

“Councillors and I now look forward to hearing what Aucklanders, the CCOs and the port company have to say, before finalising the budget and Statements of Intent before the end of June.

“There is much more to be done, including finding even greater savings and efficiencies, and completing our single, comprehensive transport plan with central government and our 2024-2039 plan for the waterfront land by this time next year.”

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