NEW POLL: Kiwis oppose Government’s plans to strip planning powers from councils

A new Taxpayers Union – Curia poll has found that 47% of Kiwis want planning powers to remain with local councils rather than be transferred to new regional planning committees made up of council, Government, and iwi and hapū appointees. With only 24% in favour of the Government’s RMA reforms and 28% undecided, the Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Acts, which replace the former Resource Management Act, has a net support of negative 23 points amongst New Zealanders.

There is more support than opposition for planning and resource allocation decisions remaining with local councils across every age, area, gender and preferred party demographic with the exception of Green voters who favour the centralization.

The full polling report can be found here.

Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves, said: 

“New Zealanders clearly do not support the current Government’s Wellington-knows-best attitude of taking more and more powers away from our local councils into the centre. While the Resource Management Act is a dog and has led to a housing and infrastructure crisis, David Parker’s replacement will lead to even higher building costs, more red tape, no local control, and more co-governance.

“Rather than strip powers away from councils, the Government should instead look to improve the incentives for them to grow by ensuring they are properly compensated for infrastructure upgrades through arrangements like GST sharing. Whichever parties are in a position to form a Government after the election should go back to the drawing board and reform the planning system so that it promotes local control, certainty, simplicity and private property rights.”