Christchurch City Council Must Reject Asset Sell Off

The Christchurch City Council and city residents must resist pressure from Government to sell off valuable strategic assets and important council properties, according to Megan Woods, the Member of Parliament for Wigram.

Megan Woods’ call follows the Minister for Local Government calling on the Christchurch City Council to sell as- sets such as the airport, Orion and the Lyttelton Port Company to fund the earthquake recovery It has also been revealed that Government has “requested” the Council work with Treasury to examine contracting out council services and introducing user-pays.

Ms Woods said that the city’s commercial assets such as the airport company and the port had returned profits over a significant number of years, meaning that Christchurch rates had been able to be kept at 20% below the national average for cities.

“Selling down the Council’s shareholding in these companies will not be in the interests of Christchurch residents, and is a short-sighted approach,” said Ms Wood. “At present these companies generate more than $70 million a year in profits and this will be lost if the Government’s agenda is allowed to prevail.”

“I strongly support the Council in its stance of resisting pressure from the Government and urge CCC to continue to be the guardians of the publically-held assets that have been built up by generations of Christchurch residents,” continued Ms Woods.

In her submission on the Council’s Draft Annual Plan, Ms Woods says that the continued public-ownership of assets is vital not only to a successful rebuilding of the city and its communities, but also by keeping rates down and ensuring that Council-owned companies operate for the benefit of ratepayers, not private shareholders.

ENDS

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