11 November 2011

Draft Auckland Plan Bound to Fail

The Auckland Council's draft Auckland Plan fails to focus the Council on succeeding in its core task of providing local public goods efficiently and at least cost, according to a submission on the draft plan released today by the New Zealand Business Roundtable.

Acting Business Roundtable executive director Dr Bryce Wilkinson said that instead, the plan sets lofty objectives for matters the Council is quite unsuited to pursue, compared to voluntary or private organisations or central government, and some of which it cannot directly control.

"For example, it proposes a greatly expanded role for the Council, especially in social areas such as education, employment, housing, support for Maori, and income and wealth distribution.

"The high level problem of a lack of focus would be compounded by the practical impossibility of purposeful management when decision-making is arbitrary because of multiple, conflicting objectives.

"As a result, the plan is bound to fail to achieve most if not all of its objectives, despite its high costs.

"Furthermore, the plan does not acknowledge the importance of accommodating the diversity of views among Aucklanders as to how the city should evolve. Thus it neglects the importance of promoting choice through competitive delivery, diversity and the encouragement of initiative and entrepreneurship.

"The Council's proposed development strategy illustrates the problems. It would tightly control the supply of land for development leading to excessive prices for residential and commercial land and undermine the prosperity and welfare of Aucklanders.

"This is not the path to making Auckland the world's most liveable city.

"There needs to be much greater respect for Aucklanders' individual aspirations and their rights as property owners if Auckland is to achieve its potential", concluded Dr Wilkinson.

The Business Roundtable’s submission on the plan is available on its website at nzbr.org.nz.

www.nzbr.org.nz

ENDS

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