Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger campaigned to keep rates low. Two years in the job, as the city’s residents face near double-digit rate rises, he says it’s worth it to keep council services going.
Ratepayers in the city have seen their rates rise 9.9%, on average, this year.
Speaking with Q+A, Mauger said higher-than-expected insurance bills and interest rates were part of the reason.
“Also, with our rates, we said we wouldn’t change any levels of service to people because we voted on council and said, right, we don’t want to do that,” Mauger said.
“We could mow our grass less. We could shut a pool one day a week, or a library one day a week, or something like that.
“But people, when people get the rate demand, they stick it on the fridge, and they look at it every morning. When they go to work and walk outside, they expect their footpath to look good. They expect their gutters right, the rubbish collected, clean water and sewer out, and the reserves and libraries.
“That’s what the basic stuff is.”
In 2022, while running for mayor, Mauger promised to cap rates rises to 3% a year.
At the time, his opponents said it was unrealistic. When asked if he broke his promise, Mauger told Q+A this week: “I didn’t do what I promised.”
“Hand on heart, I went in thinking [during the campaign] that we could do it.”
He added that he’d tried his best to keep rates down.
Of the total rates rise, about two percentage points of the average increase will go towards constructing the city’s $683 million Te Kaha stadium.
Video released by Christchurch City Council begins in November 2023, just ahead of work starting on the roof support structure. (Source: Supplied)
Paying for Christchurch’s growth
Over the last five-year Census period to 2023, Christchurch’s population grew 6%.
Neighbouring Waimakariri grew 11%, and Selwyn by 29%.
Mauger said the earthquake still had an impact on Christchurch’s population. However, he said the city had several new subdivisions contributing to growth.
“I’d like them to come back and be our ratepayers,” he said of the city’s former residents. Part of bringing people back was building more houses, Mauger said.
While the council has voted to allow taller buildings to be built in the CBD’s core, it has delayed further decisions on intensifying existing residential areas until December.
Asked if Christchurch should spread out rather than build up, Mauger said some people would oppose building houses on otherwise productive land.
“We’re pretty full. We’ve still got a number of areas. And intensification is going to be something that’s coming to the forefront.”
The party’s housing spokesperson told Q+A that there was a dire housing crisis in New Zealand. (Source: 1News)
He said Christchurch has “got plenty of room to intensify in town”, noting that he preferred dense housing to be built along rapid transit corridors.
Referring to the previous government’s zoning reforms, Mauger said he opposed giving property owners the right to build three-storey units, adding that he represented families in the suburbs that wanted their kids to have more space.
Christchurch would have had to allow more dense housing under Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) under the previous government.
The MDRS allows people to build up to three homes, up to three storeys, on most sites without the need for resource consent.
The coalition Government has made MDRS changes optional.
Before that, councillors in Christchurch had tried to carve out more areas from the MDRS, including by raising concerns about access to sunlight.
An independent hearings panel later rejected this approach. The independent panel noted in its report the council had felt there was an “existing oversupply” of houses in Christchurch that would have justified broad carve-outs.
The panel added the council had “withheld intensification from significant areas within Christchurch, and did not adequately interrogate housing need and the consequences for affordability of housing in areas where it is needed the most”.
Asked if allowing for greater density would make houses more affordable in Christchurch, Mauger told Q+A: “It’s like taking tomatoes to the grocer.
“The more you have, the cheaper they get. It’s all got to help.
“I think that’s one of the reasons the Government are pushing for more land [to be zoned for housing].”
He said there was still a lot of land available to develop.
“You could argue whether it’s the right place to do it or not. But the more of it, the cheaper it’ll become.”
Housing Minister Chris Bishop has announced a number of land use reforms, including requiring councils to make sure there is enough developable land available for at least 30 years’ housing demand.
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
