Manukau mayor slams lack of business land

Jobs will be lost and the economy stifled if Auckland cannot offer business more land, says Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis.

The problem is delays of up to three years in rezoning land for business, Sir Barry told Regional Growth Forum members yesterday.

He said the forum's move to identify land for future business demand was five years overdue.

"Manukau has little significant land left for business. To prevent the economy from being strangled we have to find a way to expedite the zoning of land."

Sir Barry said the Manukau City Council was forced to go outside the normal process after spending $6 million on land for a bridge, which would link its food and business cluster in Mangere, including the new Villa Maria Winery.

Support for trying faster ways through the planning process came from Waitakere City Council chief executive Harry O'Rourke.

"Economic development is necessary now," he said. "When an industrialist wants to build a factory or start a new business it's no use saying that will take two or three years.

"They just go somewhere else ... they will pop off to Brisbane or Sydney where they welcome development."

Mr O'Rourke said Waitakere was counting the economic and social cost of not providing jobs for its citizens.

Enterprise Waitakere chairman Bryan Mogridge said his group had worked hard to find land for firms that would have moved elsewhere. Faster action was needed for requests to expand the Metropolitan Urban Limits so rural land could be used for business.

The chairman of both the forum and the Auckland Regional Council, Mike Lee, said the council was aware of the urgency in providing more business land.