{"id":412370,"date":"2026-05-05T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/412370\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:00:08","slug":"govt-tells-councils-to-submit-radical-reform-plans-in-next-three-months-or-we-will-do-it-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/412370\/","title":{"rendered":"Govt tells councils to submit radical reform plans in next three months \u2018or we will do it for you\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local Government Minister Simon Watts reiterated the ultimatum, saying the status quo was no longer feasible. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor areas that choose not to come forward, through the Head Start pathway, the Government will implement a back-stop process. And this will ensure the reform happens across the entirety of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe door is now open, and the ball is now in the court of councils.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regional councillors will also be replaced at the 2028 local elections and replaced with an interim body that could include a panel of mayors or Crown commissioners. The Government has not determined the model. <\/p>\n

From May 5, 2026, two or more territorial authorities or unitary authorities (such as Auckland) could submit a proposal to merge themselves into a new body covering part or all of the region. <\/p>\n

The proposals would be submitted to Cabinet for approval. <\/p>\n

Bishop has described the reforms as \u201cthe most significant changes to local Government since 1989\u2033 and are designed to fit into Bishop\u2019s Resource Management Act shake-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal government in New Zealand is too costly, it\u2019s too hard for people to navigate,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got 78 councils across a country of around 5 million people, and our view is too often that leads to duplication, dysfunction and decisions that don\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, Bishop proposed replacing elected councillors with \u201cCombined Territories Boards\u201d or CTBS.<\/a> That option has been scrapped after strong opposition during consultation, but Bishop called it a \u201cstarter for 10\u201d. About 1100 submissions were made during the consultation period. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we heard was quite consistent, there is strong support for change, and many councils want more flexibility to get on with that change in a way that works for them,\u201d Bishop said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral mayors have told us both in writing and personally, they have got quite clear ideas around what should change and they want to get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about whether three months was enough time for councils to prepare proposals, Bishop said \u201cwe are not starting from a standing start\u201d. The deadline for proposals is August 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been conversations happening in many regions already,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to set a window, the window is three months, we want to make decisions this side of the election, we think it is important to keep the momentum up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Government Minister Simon Watts reiterated the ultimatum, saying the status quo was no longer feasible. \u201cFor areas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29893,7230,26519,7558,9060,63701,6309,2082,14154,266,24912,78,702,440,114714,3234,3025,111,43,139,1536,69,691,2171,23471,87099,16860,5914,130674,6642,1529,61,3270,5977,1533,197],"class_list":["post-412370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-authorities","tag-coalition","tag-councillors","tag-councils","tag-decades","tag-ditch","tag-do","tag-for","tag-give","tag-government","tag-govt","tag-in","tag-it","tag-local","tag-merge","tag-months","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-or","tag-plans","tag-proposals","tag-radical","tag-reform","tag-regional","tag-submit","tag-tells","tag-three","tag-to","tag-we","tag-which","tag-will","tag-you"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}