Joint investment bid by mayors
Wellington’s mayors have met with Transport Minister Phil Twyford to ask for help with a massive infrastructure scheme similar to the recently finalised $28b Auckland plan.
And the mayors want to keep the option open of a Regional Fuel Tax to fund the plan.
Twyford has chaired a meeting with mayors from the Wellington region where they presented the beginnings of an investment plan for the entire region, to be fully drafted by June.
The minister is keen to work with Wellington’s mayors on a ministerial level to get projects over the line and is providing help from officials at the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.
A document provided to Stuff spells out what the mayors want.
‘‘We’ve recognised the risk of a fragmented approach to major investment across the region and we’re developing a Regional Investment Plan to agree priorities and sequencing. We want to do this with the Government,’’ it reads.
The transport priorities set out in the document are: investing in inter-regional and intra-regional rail, rapid transit (likely light rail), sub-regional connections like the Cross Valley link between Seaview and State Highway 2, and better regional access to the hospital, airport, and port.
There are also pleas for social and affordable housing, with greenfield KiwiBuild builds and ‘‘regeneration’’ of state housing in lower-income areas.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said the whole scheme would likely involve billions of dollars of investment.
The plan responds to signals the Government gave in their Government Policy Statement (GPS) on transport in early April, which set aside $4b for regional transit.
The document mentions ‘‘new funding mechanisms’’ as a ‘‘key enabling action’’ to get the plan underway.
The mayors and Twyford give the example of a kind of land value uplift scheme, which allows councils to capture the increase in value that new infrastructure brings to private property.
But they also want to keep the more controversial Regional Fuel Tax on the table.
Twyford has promised that the 10c/litre tax would only be allowed in Auckland – at least during this term of Government.
But the legislation would allow other councils to apply to him for permission to levy their own tax.
In the agenda notes for a meeting on their submission on the GPS Wellington City Council’s City Strategy Committee it asks the Government to ‘‘reconsider the decision not to introduce any additional regional fuel taxes this Parliamentary term, and keep under consideration other measures to influence behaviour change such as long stay parking.’’
Twyford said ‘‘lots of things would be on the table’’ for funding including land value capture and tolling roads. Congestion charging was also ‘‘distinctly possible.’’
He described the meeting as a ‘‘pretty remarkable discussion.’’
Twyford cautioned however that he didn’t want the mayors to come to him with a ‘‘wishlist’’ of projects but a co-ordinated strategy.
‘‘‘It needs to be based on a thought-through strategy, with some clear priorities, not just a random list of projects.’’
Rongotai MP and former deputy mayor Paul Eagle organised the meeting and said there was a real feeling among the mayors that Wellington needed to get on the bus and not miss out on the available funding.
‘‘‘It was the first time I’ve seen in my close association with local Government that everyone was singing from the same song sheet.
‘‘We need to get progress – and we need to get bang for our buck from local Government.’’
‘‘It’s really really key that we act now, that we leverage the GPS – but also Kiwibuild.’’
Eagle said he was keen to see ‘‘trucks and diggers’’ in the eastern and southern suburbs working on mass transit within two years.