How we invest in our neighbourhoods

27 August 2019

  • Blog

Council’s strategy for investing money is often complex, with budgets for various projects coming from different ‘pots’ of money across council.

At Panuku, our work falls into two areas.

Avondale 2

Firstly, we work with other parts of council to deliver ‘public good’ projects. These include improving infrastructure and delivering public spaces. ‘Public good’ might include parks, playgrounds, cycling paths, street upgrades or town squares.

Secondly, we work with partners such as central government, iwi, not-for-profit and the private sector to deliver development that will contribute positively to the urban regeneration of an area. We work with our development partners to agree good outcomes, including creating buildings that benefit neighbourhoods.

We treat development in our urban regeneration neighbourhoods as a collective programme of work. When we sell a site, the revenue goes into a ‘pot’ and we allocate the money in this ‘pot’ based on best value for Aucklanders. This approach takes into consideration neighbourhoods where we might not have a lot of property to sell, but we can see a lot of potential. Land has different values in different parts of the city, and the strategy also creates balance around this.

It's important to look at our existing and future investment in context with the rest of council’s. For example, in Avondale, the council is funding a new community facility. Panuku is funding a new town square and other public good projects which are being designed alongside the community facility.

Our approach to investment mirrors council’s approach to rates. Council doesn’t spend what it received in each suburb, rather it determines spending against need and priorities. As our work progresses we will continue to review and build our understanding of the needs and priorities of each of our neighbourhoods.

By David Rankin
Chief Operating Officer