Jeremy Sole: Contractors have mixed feelings on reshuffle

Members of the civil construction industry in Auckland could be forgiven for having mixed feelings at the news that the Government has approved Auckland's Super City.

Ultimately the changes should bring big benefits to the city and the industry resolving the growth-inhibiting, multi-council, multi-agenda structure.

Standardisation of rules, philosophies and processes should bring an operating environment more conducive to ensuring that local and regional infrastructure initiatives are planned, integrated, gain consent and built more efficiently. And within reasonable timeframes.

Currently various areas have different district plans, agendas and resource consent criteria. Inconsistency of rules and interpretations across the different areas of Auckland are barriers to efficiency.

For instance, contractors laying pipes from Auckland City through to Waitakere have in the past needed to change pipe sizes at the boundaries due to different regulations.

Notwithstanding that benefits may eventually follow, many will remember all too well the very difficult hiatus after the last local government reorganisation in 1989 when three or four years passed before a works programme was fully re-established.

One reason was that the merger of different authorities brought together people from diverse backgrounds and interests. It took time for them to formulate an infrastructure works plan that met the objectives of the merged organisation. It is important that this does not happen again.

The reality for contractors was that the work simply stopped. For today's contractors, already struggling in a difficult economic environment, the prospect of a similar works programme drought is a very grim one.

The Super City transition will set the standard for restructuring across the country, so it's important to get it right and ensure swift attention to works programmes.

The federation is encouraged by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide's commitment to ensuring the process of change can proceed as smoothly as possible, including $13 million allocated to set up an establishment board.

We have had some very positive conversations with him and feel confident he is taking a pragmatic approach and working in the best interests of Auckland and New Zealand. We hope he gets full support to achieve the best results in the big task ahead.

The Government is committed to getting New Zealand moving and the vision of one Auckland is an integral part of that. Consultation will be a vital part of ensuring the process runs as smoothly as possible.

We would like to see that board include a forward workload planning group to prioritise and create a works programme for the new authority. We very much look forward to working with them to ensure Auckland's infrastructure assets are properly developed and maintained during the establishment phase.

There are also other concerns. While the Government is firmly committed to investment in transport infrastructure to achieve economic growth, it appears this will be subject to funding availability.

The recent $25 million a year drop in the lower threshold of the predicted spend range in the Government Policy Statement for 2010 and 2011 indicates Government's expectation that councils will not be committing their own funds to roading projects - so not drawing down the Transport Agency funding share.

The federation's concern has been what will happen to those funds earmarked for local projects, if they are not taken up?

The Government has recently agreed to allow unused funds to be diverted to other transport projects but the mechanism for this is not yet clear.

It is vital that local projects such as arterial roads keep rolling forward. One way to do this would be low-interest Government loans to local councils - restricted to essential infrastructure projects.

To reduce uncertainty and ensure the maximum benefits for the country from allocated transport funding, the federation would like to see an annual deadline set for applications to the local roading fund, and an expiry date if the central Government share is not drawn down for approved projects.

The federation is also considering running regional forums for local contractors, council representatives and other industry agencies.

* Jeremy Sole is chief executive of the New Zealand Contractors' Federation.