Latest from Local Government

Cash-strapped councils need to look at spending - Bennett

Decision to dump councillors from transport board deferred

Funding study boost for council

Auckland Council's desperate hunt for new revenue to supplement an ever-growing rates burden may be boosted by a Local Government NZ funding review.

Council funding reform plea shot down

Prime Minister John Key has sprayed cold water on calls for a comprehensive rethink of how local government spending is funded.

Councillors on AT board face the axe

Auckland Mayor Len Brown opposes a plan to stop councillors serving as board members on Auckland Transport.

Councils face funding timebomb

Country should ponder new funding solutions such as paying coal and gas royalties to cash-strapped councils, local government bosses say.

Councillors face board ban

EXCLUSIVE: Auckland bureaucrats have come up with a plan to dump councillors from sitting on the board of Auckland Transport.

Len Brown joins house-hunting fray

Len Brown and his wife Shan Inglis have sold their big South Auckland home and are now getting first-hand knowledge of the city's pressure-cooker house market.

Future Auckland: Health

In part four of the Herald series on how to make Auckland better, we look at the pros and cons of health-care in New Zealand's biggest city.

Len Brown: An investment in Auckland's future

Aucklanders have spent many, many years admiring what other cities have, but we're catching up now, writes Auckland Mayor Len Brown. There's a real sense of pride growing around our region.

Brian Rudman: Liveable Len could stop the chop

Just because pohutukawa trees prosper in Auckland's coastal setting is not a reason to treat them as a weed and hack them down when they get in the way of a road builder.

Has Auckland got its 10-year budget right?

Aucklanders have seven weeks to provide feedback on a draft 10-year budget that, according to Mayor Len Brown, includes some of the biggest decisions on the city's future. Send us Your Views.

Michael Ayrton: Cornwall Park a magnificent gift that keeps giving

While four million visitors enjoy the park each year, not one cent of the costs comes from rates or taxes, writes Michael Ayrton. That is thanks to the magnificent bequest of the "Father" of the city.

John Armstrong: We all know the act is not the problem

Got a problem? Then blame it on the Resource Management Act, writes John Armstrong. "Nick Smith is using the RMA as a smokescreen. The Auckland housing crisis is really a crisis of insatiable demand."

$405k to resolve Super City staff gripes

Auckland Council paid out $405,000 settling and defending personal grievances in the past year.

DoC rejects 1080 claims

Claims that the high-profile pest control campaign "Battle For Our Birds" wiped out a group of nationally endangered birds are unfounded, the Department of Conservation says.

Council backs new film studio

Film and television incentives have lifted the screen production industry out of the doldrums, prompting the Auckland Council to back new studios in West Auckland.

Support for volcano car ban widens

A ban on cars from the summit of Mt Eden, one of Auckland's best-known sightseeing spots, has overwhelming support in a new Herald-DigiPoll survey.