Massive builders and companies concern political interference in choices over metropolis property offers now {that a} standalone company has been folded again into the Auckland Council.
Their worries are outlined in a marketing consultant’s report commissioned by Mayor Wayne Brown and never but made public, however obtained by Newsroom beneath the Official Data Act.
The council-controlled organisation referred to as Eke Panuku went out of existence on July 1, after overseeing city regeneration, city centre redevelopments and the council’s non-service property portfolio for the merged Tremendous Metropolis.
Auckland Council says it’s the second greatest property proprietor in New Zealand after the Crown. Its non-service portfolio contains industrial, retail and residential properties, but additionally landfills, quarries, heritage buildings and marinas.
Brown had been a longstanding critic of Eke Panuku’s operations and achievements and campaigned for it to be merged again into the council, as the brand new Auckland City Improvement Workplace, with a brand new property division alongside.
However an August 2025 evaluate he commissioned from Monteith Advisory was unconvinced by how efficient that call to subsume the property operate again into the council equipment can be.
It advised Brown the brand new construction set-up following his proposal wouldn’t “ship the full-range of desired outcomes”.
Writer Andrew Monteith, whose agency describes itself as strategic authorized advisory, canvassed main stakeholders inside and outdoors the council and located the operational and supply points related to Eke Panuku had been, “in actuality, council-wide”.
His report identifies a “typically unfavourable tradition” within the council – into which the event obligations have now been positioned.
“The structural change … won’t resolve these operational and supply points with out additional structural and operational reform to the way in which the council group operates and works collectively.”
It couldn’t simply be a “raise and shift” of the Eke Panuku’s function right into a forms. The report heard suggestions that the unbiased EP had many positives and issues with transactions and offers usually arose from council folks past that company setting themselves up as gatekeepers.
True reform would require cultural and attitudinal change within the bigger organisation earlier than exterior companies would have religion something would meaningfully change.
They supported the idea of an Auckland City Improvement Workplace (AUDO) and believed having it act “because the mandated lead in respect of precedence areas, together with town centre, and greenfield areas can be a big step ahead”.
Monteith Advisory says the mayoral proposal for altering Eke Panuku to the AUDO had envisaged the governing physique of the council, the mayor and 20 councillors, approving refreshed precedence areas. This is able to purpose to align these higher with the council’s planning paperwork and development methods.
Builders consulted highlighted the potential for political meddling.
“The event neighborhood can also be involved that folding Eke Panuku again into council could create further points, together with better transactional publicity to political interference,” Monteith says.
He later expands on that concern {that a} operate immediately beneath management of elected councillors might distort decision-making.
“A frequent concern raised by stakeholders was the lack of a separate entity and unbiased board might improve the danger of better political interference in decision-making.
“One massive developer thought-about the first final result from the Eke Panuku restructure can be the ‘politicisation’ of council property offers, and lots of stakeholders queried how arms-length decision-making may very well be maintained following the lack of structural independence.”
However Monteith implies not all the troubles about politicisation got here from exterior (developer and personal sector) suggestions. “Stakeholders, significantly exterior stakeholders, would additionally wish to see clear guardrails as a part of the governance construction to make sure that decision-makers, together with elected members, stick with respective remits and clearly outlined authorities.”
The suggestions to Monteith included a typical view that Auckland Council was “tangibly harder to cope with than different native authorities in New Zealand”.
The evaluate stated a root trigger recognized was that the council offered itself as “anti progress and in opposition to improvement.”
It advised in-depth evaluations of three improvement tasks beneath Eke Panuku talked about by stakeholders for inconsistent industrial place and procurement points (Northcote and Avondale city centres), governance and decision-making considerations (Downtown Carpark) and engagement and relationships (Drury).
Builders spoke of smaller councils with an angle and willingness to positively interact with the non-public sector, “in stark distinction to their expertise in Auckland”.
Beneath a piece on “widespread points raised each internally and externally”, Monteith examines what it headlines a “Tradition of NO”.
“Nearly each stakeholder expressed frustration on the unfavourable cultural angle of the broader council group, significantly these components concerned in improvement and consenting.
“Overly conservative, rigid ‘trying to find a no’ and hostile to and deeply suspicious of the non-public sector had been the most typical complaints.
“A number of builders thought-about that council processes weren’t meant to facilitate progress – relatively ‘no’ is the default place and events needed to work from there to attempt to persuade the organisation to maneuver in direction of a ‘sure’.
“Nearly each exterior stakeholder referenced this as a big roadblock to progress in Auckland metropolis… and two builders stated they had been actively directing capital funding to areas exterior Auckland due to the difficulties in coping with Auckland Council.”
The council must work now, in what might be a brand new time period of political management, to “break down inherent distrust of the non-public sector”. Monteith stated a tradition change undertaking was deliberate.
It says the brand new improvement and property items on the council would wish enough funding, clout throughout the organisation and seniority on the govt desk to succeed.
It warned the council to beware of making and counting on advisory boards and extra design evaluate panels, to keep away from complexity and duplication.
The respondents to the evaluate wished the brand new council improvement workplace to focus much less on supply of tasks and extra on serving to the non-public sector make them occur.
It additionally stated the restructure can be an opportune time to undertake a stocktake of the present council property portfolio to contemplate what may be out there for disposal and tasks, “people who must be paused or discontinued”.
On the council’s full September assembly the mayor questioned the property employees construction and the proliferation of titles.
His chief govt Phil Wilson defended the staff, saying with the second greatest portfolio within the nation he made no apology for the very fact it wanted to be well-resourced.
Brown: “Seeing it’s the second greatest property portfolio within the nation I’d like to grasp the way it’s resourced. No specific questions concerning the people, simply the titles, and the numbers and the way they match collectively.
“We’re the second greatest property proprietor however not the second greatest property vendor.”
Brown complained that the property points across the Japanese Busway at Pakuranga irritated him “each time I am going on the market… AT have been in a position to waste loads of house … to supply smaller sections than are simply marketable.
“It’s nothing like a correct one that was concerned in property would even take into consideration permitting to occur.
“That’s occurred there in large-scale and we’re nicely rewarding a big group of individuals in right here for poor outcomes.”
Brown stated he didn’t wish to “repair a flat tyre twice” so wished to make sure higher processes can be adopted in future.
