21 August 2025
Regional and unitary councils undertake many important functions aimed at delivering thriving environments, economies, and communities.
These functions include the sustainable management of our natural resources, monitoring and compliance, flood control and civil defence, the management and public enjoyment of regional parks, the coordination and provision of public transport, pest control, harbor management, and regional and spatial planning.
Te Uru Kahika and its members agree that the current structure of local government service delivery is unsustainable and could better meet the needs of our country.
To achieve our ambitions, the wider local government sector must adjust and respond to challenges including the complexity of regulatory change, scale of investment required, and the limits of current funding tools.
We are committed to working collaboratively to identify the key issues and opportunities to introduce more efficient delivery, a wider set of funding tools, greater capability and capacity, improved evidence quality to support decision-making, and better allocation of resources.
Decisions about which services sit at which level of government are complex and meaningful. Smart alignment of function delivery (whether at a central, regional, or local level) can lift efficiency and system performance, while separating the delivery of certain functions can reduce their viability. In key areas, we see room to consider all levels of government including devolution and centralisation where this may add value.
We are guided by what works practically, what can be achieved at scale, and what needs to be responsive to regional communities.
We place particular emphasis on the changes arising from central government reforms because these areas have implications for the sustainability of local government and the future of our communities.