Reforms, funding battles and leadership change in store for Christchurch council

Thursday, 1 January 2026

Three Government proposals will have a big impact on local government across New Zealand.

There is the rates cap, the proposal to shake up regional councils by replacing its councillors with a board of district and city mayors, and widespread changes to the resource management act.

All three were announced by the Government in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The council will also have some hard decisions to make around funding of key Christchurch buildings - Canterbury Museum, Christ Church Cathedral, the Arts Centre, and the Provincial Chambers.

A decision is looming on the future ownership of the council-owned Lichfield St car park.

Amidst all this, councillors will have to decide on a successor to chief executive Mary Richardson, whose contract expires at the end of June.

Reform

A rates cap will have far reaching consequences as the council will start to develop its 2027-37 10-year budget in 2026.

While councils have until 2029 to fully implement a cap of between 2% and 4%, the Government has told them they should not wait until then to control rates increases. It wants councils to build the cap into their 10-year budgets from 2027.

The proposal means the council will need to find savings of between $28m and $38m in the 2027/28 financial year. But $28m is about the cost of the entire budget for recreation facilities.

Nothing is off the table in terms of finding savings and the council will do a line by line review of its costs and possibly cut services.

Cr Sam MacDonald, chair of the council’s finance committee, has already put the city on notice that it needs to consider selling assets, or “recycling assets” as some prefer to call it.

He wants to sell fibre broadband company Enable, which he reckons could have a market value of $1 billion, use some of the proceeds to pay off debt and put the rest into a protected investment fund.

The council would take a return out of the fund each year, but it would be maintained at a certain level, he said.

There is also a call from mayor Phil Mauger for the Government to free up more income for councils, including paying full rates on its buildings like schools and hospitals.

The Government’s plan to replace regional councillors with a board of district and city mayors has not been welcomed by city council staff.

At a briefing in early December council policy advisers said the proposed structure was “temporary and weak” and was unlikely to produce the best outcome for Christchurch ratepayers.

The advisers offered up two alternatives - either a Greater Christchurch metro super city encompassing Selwyn, Waimakariri and Environment Canterbury (ECan) or a Christchurch Unitary Council, which sees the council take on board ECan’s functions.

These options will be developed further and submitted as part of the council’s feedback on the proposal by February 20.

The resource management act changes are expected to take effect from mid-2026 with the introduction of two new bills - Natural Environment and Planning.

The Government says the changes would almost halve the number of resource consents required.

Christchurch City Council is still figuring out what the impact will be on the organisation.

City deal

While the council will be focused on finding significant future savings it will also be faced with big decisions over whether to give additional money to the restoration of the Christ Church Cathedral and the Canterbury Museum rebuild.

A new downsized plan to restore the cathedral was announced in September and while the $90m plan halves the financial shortfall, another $40m to $45m is still needed.

Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCRL), the charitable company managing the rebuild, is again going cap in hand to ratepayers, taxpayers and private interests, to raise the additional money.

Canterbury Museum asked the council in 2025 for another $21m as the cost of its redevelopment project rose from $205m to $247m, increasing its shortfall from $44.6m to $86.6m.

Mauger is talking about approaching the Government for help in funding these projects in the form of a city deal.

He also wants to add the council-owned Canterbury Provincial Chambers, which has been closed since the 2011 earthquakes, to the list along with the Arts Centre, so the final two of its Category 1 listed heritage buildings can be finally restored.

Mauger said staff are working on a proposal to take to the Government.

But, the council will have to also contribute some money of its own, he said.

“You’ve got to put some skin in the game.”

The museum, Arts Centre and cathedral have already had a lot of money spent on them and they just needed a “little bit more” to finish them off, Mauger said.

“We’ve got the stadium and Parakiore and if we’re not careful these ones will get left behind.”

One option to gain additional cash is selling the Lichfield St car park, which has a $50m book value.

The council has sought feedback from the public on whether it should be sold and a decision is likely in early 2026.

New chief executive search

Arguably the biggest decision councillors will make in 2026 is who will take over from chief executive Mary Richardson when her contract expires on June 30.

Richardson was appointed to the position in October 2024 after councillors chose not to employ any of the almost 40 people who applied for the position.

Richardson had been doing the job since the former chief executive Dawn Baxendale left abruptly in late 2023.

At the time Richardson asked for her salary to be reduced due to financial pressures on the council and ratepayers. She started on $450,000, about $100,000 less than her predecessor.

The council’s latest annual report shows she received $466,569 in the year to June 30, 2025.

Richardson does not want to be reappointed, much to the disappointment of Mauger and councillors.

Mauger said he would love Richardson to stay because she had done a great job “steadying the ship”.

The council has started the process to pick the recruitment company. The last recruitment process in 2024 cost the council $72,000.

Mauger was confident there would be new contenders this time around.

“Sometimes, second time around, different people put their hands up. Circumstances might have changed.”