Regional deals will help Kāpiti and Horowhenua - Tim Costley

MPs Tim Costley and Dana Kirkpatrick with members of the team at Raukawa Whanau Ora

THREE KEY FACTS:

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told the Local Government Conference that councils needed to focus on the “basics”.
• The Government will invite up to five regions to pitch for regional deals before the first one is finalised by next year.
• Mills Albert civil contracting company has sponsored logo space on Wellington Rugby uniforms for Bellyful, a national charity.

Tim Costley is the MP for Ōtaki.

I have huge admiration for the team at Mills Albert who ran an amazing fundraiser for Bellyful, a charity that feeds new mums. Mills Albert gave up their logo space on Wellington Rugby uniforms to instead promote Bellyful. I love that our community is full of people, businesses and groups who put others first. That is the key to success. I was proud to win an auction for a player’s jersey, and I’ll ask my boss to sign it and re-auction it to raise more money.

Thanks to Raukawa Whanau Ora for hosting me and East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick last week in Levin. We enjoyed a mihi whakatau and a tour meeting all the team and learning about the amazing work they do in our community. We then went to Levin School where I sat on the floor playing with the robots the kids have been learning about, and spent a bit of time with children who were doing reading and writing. What a great school with amazing staff and students. So much fun!

I’ve done a lot of work on health recently, helping local residents access services, met with KYS and the Kāpiti Health Advisory Group last week, and have spent time with Ministers Reti, Doocey and Upston, advocating for our region. I’m pleased to see the Breast Screening Bus will be back on the road to Kāpiti soon, and one is currently in Levin.

You may have seen the Prime Minister’s comments about councils getting back to basics and controlling rate increases. Part of our plan to help with this is regional deals. Across the lower North Island we’ve seen stories of water pipes bursting, roadsfalling apart, housing shortages. We have significant population growth coming to this region, and I believe we will need to increase capacity in health and education. That’s what these deals are all about.

Regional deals have been very successful in the UK and Australia, and will support long-term collaboration between central and local government, deliver a joint, long-term vision for regions, and will be relentlessly focused on economic growth and productivity, delivering resilient critical infrastructure, and improving the supply of affordable, quality housing. Regional deals will be used to help coordinate capital investment between central and local government and will also be a tool to enable regions to utilise new and existing funding tools to fund and finance this infrastructure.

I’ve invited Minister Simeon Brown to visit Kāpiti and Horowhenua next week so he can see the exciting potential here, and so I can advocate strongly for our region.

Finally, good luck Madison Rest Home for your mini-Olympics this week. I loved seeing you all on Monday.