The Waikato region’s bid to unlock central government funding and resources will be an investment in the future growth of New Zealand’s central and upper North Island.

A so-called ‘light touch’ regional deal proposal, developed by Waikato Regional Council under guidance from a Chief Executive Working Group, has been agreed by the Waikato Mayoral Forum this week. The proposal will be finalised and lodged by the Government’s 28 February deadline.

Regional Deals is the Government’s initiative for establishing long-term agreements between central and local government. The programme unlocks funding and resource opportunities to support councils to make improvements in their region, for example to roads, infrastructure and the supply of quality housing.

Chair of the Waikato Mayoral Forum, Hauraki District Mayor Toby Adams, said: “We have come together as a region to present to the government a cohesive and aligned package to drive economic growth, ensure quality and affordable homes are built where they’re needed, and we have resilient and connected rural communities.

“The benefits of central funding and resource investment will ignore boundaries, turbo-charging economic growth in the whole region. To do this, we’ve had to prioritise projects that deliver regional benefits.

“Our regional deals proposal centres on an integrated, connected, highly mobile region where people and products move freely to markets,” Mayor Adams said.

Prioritised projects focus on the deal objectives: building economic growth, delivering connected and resilient infrastructure, and improving the supply of affordable and quality housing.

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Waikato Regional Council Chair Pamela Storey said: “Our light-touch proposal recognises that Hamilton’s growth is fuelling, and being fuelled by, a growing region. And it demonstrates how investment in the Waikato is an investment in the powerhouse of New Zealand, with the benefits extending beyond our region due to our central location in the golden triangle with Auckland and Tauranga, and the North Island.”

She pointed out the Waikato region is strategically placed in the central and upper North Island, delivering goods, services and infrastructure that strengthen the national economy and deliver quality regional communities at both a metropolitan and provincial scale.

The existing and planned projects in the proposal will bring a range of benefits for the Waikato region, such as well functioning urban developments, significant job growth and housing supply, improved resilience on key transport corridors, more resilient communities, efficient freight networks, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved tourist experiences, increased electricity generation, economic diversification and certainty of water supply.

Key projects include, but are not limited to:

• network improvements to support the Roads of National Significance (RONS), including Hamilton Southern Links, Cambridge to Piarere expressway extension, and SH29 Tauriko West project
• support for the golden triangle road and rail investment programme
• delivery of the Future Proof priority development areas package, with a suite of initiatives including the Huntly wastewater plant, Ruakura, north Waipā/southern Hamilton, Hamilton central city,)
• support for our growing rural centres programme, for example in Paeroa, Putāruru, Thames-Coromandel, Matamata
• construction of resilient transport corridors for our rural communities through the Thames-Coromandel Resilience Programme, on SH3 to Taranaki and SH1 Taupō to Desert Road
• infrastructure that supports tourism destinations
• investment in our region’s solar, wind and bioenergy
• water security.

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