Councils' growth gripe, when paying for growth means halting it

Ting Huang says there is something of a negative feedback loop when it comes to council incentives for growth. (Image: Supplied)

Dileepa Fonseka

Mon, 11 Mar 2024

A Tale of Two Cities started with the line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”; if that line were being written about the councils governing New Zealand’s cities today, you'd probably knock off the last half of that sentence. In its first 100 days, the coalition government has looked to harness some of the public’s frustration at their councils, or at least their slow rate of progress. Housing minister Chris Bishop has lashed the slow rate of consenting, while local government minister Sim...

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