November 2016
New Zealand’s National Infrastructure Unit of The Treasury recently announced updates on infrastructure plans including the National State of Infrastructure Report 2016.
Two key themes are:
1. Central and Local Government collaboration is a critical process for more effective infrastructure and urban planning. A good example is the Auckland Transport Alignment Project.
2. There is a need for realistic water renewal forecasts. In our local government work, we notice that there are generally significant forecast renewal requirements for the next 30 years, and that these have been prepared very conservatively using essentially theoretical asset lives. This impacts directly on Council’s rates to your communities.
We are underway to test this with a pilot project of Wairoa District Council’s three waters networks.
There are many more themes and pointers within the report which should be shaping decision makers’ thinking. If you wish to know more, please contact Cushla Anich at c.anich@morrisonlow.com.