Christchurch rebuild: Who pays what remains secret

Prime Minister John Key has previously suggested 'freeing up some cash' to pay for some of the rebuild. Photo / Glenn Taylor

The results of crunch talks over who pays for what in Christchurch city centre's post-earthquake blueprint projects will remain secret until next week.

Christchurch City Council are meeting behind closed doors today and will vote on whether they sign off a deal with the Government on how much they will each pay for the anchor projects in the city recovery plan.

Those projects include a new sports stadium and convention centre.

It's understood that the Government has requested the meeting is held in private before final decisions are made.

An announcement is expected late next week.

The Government increased its contribution to the rebuild by $2 billion to $15 billion in April after revising the estimated cost upwards from $30 billion to $40 billion.

Prime Minister John Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee have said in the past that the council should sell off some of its assets to free up some cash to pay for its "nice to haves" in the rebuild.

The idea of the council partly selling its stake in assets, such as power company Orion, Lyttelton Port Company Ltd and Christchurch International Airport Ltd, is "incredibly logical", according to Mr Key.

But Mayor Bob Parker has repeatedly rejected those suggestions, as well as calls to increase rates, and instead prefers to borrow the money required for its share of the rebuild.