Ross McLeod: Grant to water company part of jobs policy

Ross McLeod, chief executive of Hastings District Council

A policy to help grow jobs in Hastings has been on Hastings District Council's books for more than two years and part of it is an incentive policy designed to attract business and create new jobs.

In the past few days there has been much public discussion around the fact that Miracle Water is the recipient of a grant under the policy, and that this has been ''a secret''.

Much of the information being put before the public is wrong, particularly that in a Hawke's Bay Today editorial last week which surmises that ratepayers' funds have been set aside for business incentives without public knowledge.

The policy and its funding pool of $200,000 per year has been publicly discussed, publicly voted on, and is available to anyone to read [insert Web link to policy]. It was put in place in 2014.

The only matters that have been discussed with the public excluded are those relating to individual businesses and are commercially sensitive.

The council elected in 2014 set job growth is one of its highest priorities with a target of 1000 new, sustainable jobs in Hastings within five years, and it put policies in place to achieve that goal.

The main policy planks designed to achieve that result include:

• Providing a key account service for large projects;
• Streamlining regulatory processes;
• Advancing industrial development zones (eg Omahu and Irongate);
• Introducing a policy giving businesses an incentive to move to Hastings or substantially increase the their scale, so long as they provide significant numbers of new, sustainable jobs.

Council also works with, and supports, a range of other export and manufacturing companies through the high-productivity work initiative and other development-supporting work.

The incentive policy is a public document. In February 2014, the economic development sub-committee recommended that the council adopt the policy, and that $200,000 per annum be set aside for the initiative. The policy was included in the Annual Plan process in March 2014 and was subject to public consultation.

It does not get much more public than that.

The stated aim of the policy is: To support private business sector growth to increase employment and incomes, leading to improved social well-being.

While there are a number of criteria, the policy says priority will be given to: new businesses which will create a minimum 50 new jobs; current businesses which have expansion plans that will create a significant number of new jobs; and ''knowledge economy'' businesses that might create fewer than 50 new jobs but which will provide a proportionately high number of skilled jobs.

A number of organisations have applied for, and been granted, assistance under the incentive policy including NZ Frost Fans, HB Labour Governance Group, Rockitt Apples and New Zealand Miracle Water.

All of these businesses met the criteria for inclusion in the programme.

The grant to NZ Miracle Water has now attracted media and political attention.

That is not surprising given we are in an election period. What is of concern, however, is that there seems to be no corresponding focus on council's support for companies selling apples or other products overseas (including to China), many of which take a great deal of water to produce. Perhaps we should all take a minute to think about why that is.

Miracle Water is not doing anything illegal. Not everyone likes it, but the company has a resource consent from Hawke's Bay Regional Council to extract the water that it exports. The company is conducting a lawful business activity that has started employing a significant number of local people and has invested significantly in other local businesses.

It may be that the public wants to have a discussion about whether regional councils should be able to issue resource consents for water without charging royalties. It may be that people want greater controls on our water resources. But in terms of Miracle Water, those horses bolted when the Hawke's Bay Regional Council set in place its resource management planning framework and issued this particular resource consent.

Hastings District Council's job supporting incentive policy has nothing in particular to do with water. It is about bringing new jobs to our district to improve the incomes and lives of our people.

Council, having set the criteria for these incentives, assists companies that meet those criteria. It would not be credible either in policy or in law to pick and choose amongst applicant companies based on the political winds of the day or individuals' likes or dislikes of the companies involved.

Note that none of the companies involved have as yet have received the full amount granted. Council carefully monitors the number of jobs created to ensure the money is only paid out when milestones are reached and our citizens are employed, and getting the benefits of that employment.

Ross McLeod is chief executive of Hastings District Council