Crown and Council agree recovery costs
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Crown and the Christchurch City Council have marked a
major milestone in the rebuild of greater Christchurch, with agreement reached on cost sharing arrangements for the
anchor projects in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, and the repair and replacement of the city’s essential
horizontal infrastructure.
“We’re talking today about an investment of $4.8 billion – $2.9 billion of it coming from the Crown, and $1.9 billion
committed by the Christchurch City Council,” Mr Brownlee says.
“Much of this work has been underway for some time, in anticipation of this day, but the certainty delivered by today’s
announcement allows both the Crown and the Council to make more definitive moves in advancing the CBD’s anchor projects.
“Negotiations ahead of today’s announcement have been undertaken over a number of months, reflecting the unfolding
nature of what we’re faced with in repairing the city’s horizontal infrastructure, and the natural priorities of the
Crown and the local authority around what projects should be funded and how they should be developed.
“As more below ground infrastructure has been opened up and reviewed, better knowledge of the scale of damage and likely
cost of its repair and replacement has become known.
“We now believe that will cost a combined $2.9 billion – $1.8 billion being the best estimate of the Crown’s likely
contribution, and $1.1 billion being the Council’s share.
“Negotiating funding agreements for the anchor projects has reflected priorities in the Council’s longer term planning,
and the Crown’s priorities, with a bias in funding and leadership of projects toward each party’s natural community
roles.
“Today’s agreement will see the Crown fund $1.1 billion of projects in the Christchurch CBD, and the Council $765
million.
“Today’s milestone gives both the Crown and the Council the ability to plan both the management and development of
anchor projects with more certainty.
“New timelines and designs for projects will be announced progressively over the coming months, giving impetus to
private sector developers as the public sector’s vision of the CBD becomes clearer.
“We are releasing indicative costings of each project, to give a sense of the scale of what is intended, but obviously
there will be competitive processes for each of them,” Mr Brownlee says.
ends