As The Sea Level Rises, Who Will Pay? Councils Seek Answers
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has warned a lack of clarity over who pays for measures to protect communities from sea level rise, flooding and weather events could leave ratepayers with a hefty bill.
The concern follows the release of a report from the Ministry for the Environment's Independent Reference Group on Climate Adaptation, which raises the question of who should pay.
Waimakariri District Council chief executive Jeff Millward said his council is beginning work on a climate adaptation strategy as it looks to prepare for the threat of sea level rise and the growing number of severe weather events.
For earthquakes and flooding events, the council has insurance through the local authority protection plan, which covers 40 percent and the balance coming from Government or loan funding.
But preparing for sea level rise and flood mitigation measures costs money, Mr Millward said.
As the risks become more severe, there may be changes to what insurance is available, or even ''no insurance at all''.
''Does it fall back on the ratepayer or the taxpayer? It is a bit more complicated and a lot more discussion has to happen.''
Councils already have clauses in District Plans identifying natural hazards and impose regulations such as minimum distances from the waterline and raising floor levels to 1.5 metres off the ground.
''People like living near the beaches or rivers, but it puts those properties at risk, so there is going to be a lot of modelling work done to identify the risks and develop and array of tools,'' Millward said.
Kaikōura District Council chief executive Will Doughty said the region's councils are working on adaptation plans, following the launch of the Canterbury Climate Partnership Plan by the Canterbury Mayoral Forum in December.
''One thing is for sure - there is going to be a bill. I think we do need clarity and it is a conversation we need to have.
''I think the steps Canterbury has taken as a region to put that action plan in place has put us in a good position.
''It's a much bigger issue than any one particular district and the more joint action we can be doing the better.''
The recent report warned it may not be sustainable for government buy-outs to continue for properties in at risk areas, with weather events such as those facing the Nelson region expected to become yearly events in some areas.
It recommends phasing out those buy-outs over a 20 year period. Adaptation measures, such as flood schemes, sea walls and infrastructure, should be funded by those who benefit, the report advised.
On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told RNZ the government will not be able to keep bailing out homeowners after major floods.
The Hurunui District Council has completed climate adaptation plans in partnership with its beach communities.
It has led to the council buying a $3.8m block of land south of Amberley to prepare for future events.
Residents from at-risk communities will be able to secure sections by paying a targeted rate over the next 30 years.
The plot of land would be attached to their existing property, so the two properties cannot be sold separately.
When the time comes, residents could transport their house to the new section, or build onsite.
Council chief executive Hamish Dobbie the issue is complex and councils need some guidance from government.
''Some guidance suggests we should be involved at all. We should only be involved in roads and pipes.
''There needs to be a good sensible conversation about this.''
LGNZ vice president Campbell Barry said the ministry's report has failed to address some concerns previously raised by local government.
''It's good to see the report's sense of urgency. Our submission on climate adaptation in June last year stressed that action is needed now.
''We need to have better policies and frameworks in place to cater for increasingly severe and frequent weather events.
''Local government can't afford to have another Cyclone Gabrielle. The aftermath of a significant weather event like that comes with massive financial, infrastructure and human costs for communities.''
Barry said the lack of clarity meant the burden of paying for adaptation was likely to fall on ratepayers.
Luxon said Climate Change Minister Simon Watts had been working to get a bipartisan view on how to deal long term with major weather events.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsroom
2 days ago
- Newsroom
Paying for the reality of climate change
The 100-year floods are rolling in on a regular basis; the rain doesn't let up; no one wants a cliff-top property anymore. Climate change is no longer just about things you can't see or touch. It's about running from rising water and bailing out the basement. 'I think there has been a lot of emphasis both in reporting and in people's understanding of climate change … and the science behind that and how it's getting worse,' says RNZ In Depth reporter Kate Newton. 'We're now starting to shift our focus because of these severe weather events that we're seeing more frequently, and at a greater level of severity, to what that actually means for us now, and the fact that climate change is no longer this far-off, distant prospect, but something that is affecting real people and real lives, at this very moment.' Today on The Detail we look at how we adapt to this new normal, and who will pay for it, after a report by an Independent Reference Group recommended essentially that the days of property buy-outs have a limited life. The reference group included economists, iwi, bankers, insurance and local government representatives and was set up by the Ministry for the Environment. Newton goes through the findings on climate mitigation and adaption, which she says are politically unpalatable, and extremely expensive. 'There's a whole lot that goes into it and every step of it is complex and every step of it is expensive. But we also need to remember that even if we do nothing, it's still expensive. 'I think the top estimates of costs involved with Cyclone Gabrielle was $14.5 billion – it's a huge amount of money. 'But you're looking at things like, even just understanding where the risk is, and how severe that risk is, and how it might change in the future – it's a huge amount of work.' The Government wants bipartisan support on decisions because future certainty is required but also, Newton points out, because of the bleak message it's likely to send – in the words of one critic: 'You are on your own'. But firm decisions are unlikely to come any time soon. 'It's something that's been a long time coming and I think [Climate Change Minister] Simon Watts is running into similar problems to his predecessor James Shaw, who tried for six years to pass a climate change adaptation act,' says Newton. The main issue with that failure was around the complexity of how we do it and who pays for it. 'This is one of those big thorny issues that if you're changing the rules and changing how people adapt every three or six or nine years, it gives nobody any certainty in the future.' Earth Sciences NZ (which is the merger of Niwa with GNS) has done a huge amount of modelling work around the country, mapping coastal inundation risks, and its next body of work due out soon is on inland inundation. Other bodies of work have pointed out that we need spatial planning to avoid destruction by weather in the future. That includes identifying areas of particular risk, and having a plan for them, whether that is creating a wetland or building a sea wall or stop banks, or if a retreat from an area should be mandated. But councils aren't required by legislation to do such work; and if the Government puts a cap on rates as it's discussing, it's likely they won't be able to. They just won't have the money. Small councils also have the issue that their planning departments might consist of one or two people, and the job is far bigger than that. As well, specialists who were doing such work have had job cuts – and those experts have gone overseas where their skills are in demand. Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Ray Chung vile email scandal: Two more Independent Together candidates quit
At 9:05pm last night, Northern Takapu ward candidate Andrea Compton said in a statement she too was ending her association with the group. Within the hour Pukehīnau Lambton ward candidate Dan Milward also quit the group. 'Like many others, I was surprised by the recent allegations and the subsequent media coverage storm' he said. 'When my wife was threatened by the agitators at our final roadshow event in Wellington CBD on Tuesday night, I knew it was time to take a different approach.' Wellington City Councillor Ray Chung at a rally. Photo / Mark Mitchell Videos posted to social media have seen public meetings held by the group descend into chaos with hecklers and event organisers clashing. When contacted for comment, Chung said he 'didn't know' about the departures. He was at the Local Government New Zealand conference on Thursday and said he hadn't communicated with anyone all day. In a statement, an Independent Together spokesman blamed the media scrutiny over the email scandal - rather than the lewd email itself - for the departures. 'The political machinations at play have an enormous psychological impact for all of the candidates', the statement said. 'The accompanying media coverage and the scrutiny on the team has been intense.' They are not the first to leave the group. Engineering firm director Phil McConchie, Cuba Barbers owner Mike Petrie, and Melissa Moore had all disappeared from the group's website before Chung's official campaign launch in June. Wellington mayoral candidate Ray Chung at his campaign launch. Photo / Ethan Manera. Chung said at the time that they each left after the group was launched in April, as they struggled to manage the commitments needed to run for council with their own professional demands. Chung said he was 'not fussed' by the departures and didn't think it was a bad look for Independent Together. He said he was glad they left before they had officially declared their candidacy with the council. Tory Whanau said Chung emailed her an apology on Monday, the same day Prime Minister Christopher Luxon slammed Chung's comments. 'That was unacceptable content in that email, really pretty vile and unacceptable stuff', Luxon said when asked about it at his post-Cabinet press conference. The email's existence has also cost Chung an important backer, with rich-list philanthropist Sir Mark Dunajtschik officially withdrawing his support for the mayoral candidate. Chung has called the situation a 'blatant political attack' and a 'smear campaign'. Six candidates, including Chung, remain on the Independent Together ticket for the upcoming Wellington City Council election. Ethan Manera is a New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist with Newstalk ZB and is interested in local issues, politics, and property in the capital. Ethan can be emailed at
The Spinoff
2 days ago
- The Spinoff
Councils under pressure as government pushes ‘back to basics' agenda
Increasingly loud demands that councils rein in spending have made for a fractious week between ministers and mayors, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. Ministers and mayors air out their differences The relationship between central and local government was extra prickly this week, with a fresh suite of reforms tabled in Wellington and ministers getting a somewhat frosty reception in Christchurch at the Local Government New Zealand conference. The Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading last night , will remove councils' legal responsibility to consider the 'four wellbeings' – social, cultural, environmental and economic – when making decisions. Instead, councils will be legally obliged to prioritise so-called 'core services' like water, roads and rubbish. Opening the conference, the prime minister pitched the changes as a return to basics, saying ratepayers wanted councils to '[prioritise] pipes over vanity projects'. But among the mayors gathered in Christchurch, frustration was palpable at the expectation that they somehow, as Newsroom's David Wiliams put it, 'achieve the triumvirate: upgrading infrastructure, holding down rates, and keeping debt in check'. Clutha mayor Bryan Cadogan said ministers refuse to admit they're demanding the impossible. 'The Government knows it, we know it, but we just keep on getting this.' Councils fed up with policy whiplash That frustration is compounded by the sense that councils are forever adapting to the whims of central government. The four wellbeings, for instance, have now been added and removed from the Local Government Act four times since 2002 – inserted twice by Labour governments, stripped out by National. 'Every time we have an election, there's a flip-flop,' said LGNZ president Sam Broughton. As Shanti Mathias reports this morning in The Spinoff, he and others also pushed back at the government's suggestion that councils are blowing money on 'nice-to-haves' like bike lanes and 'fancy toilets'. In his own district of Selwyn, Broughton said, 80% of spending goes to key infrastructure like pipes and roads, with the rest funding services that communities still see as essential. Coalition partners not convinced on rate caps One of the other changes introduced in the new bill is benchmarking – mandatory, comparative performance reporting on council spending, rates, debt and outcomes. While this information is already publicly available, the law will now require councils to collate it into reports. Deputy PM David Seymour is a fan: he told the Christchurch conference that 'some healthy competition between councils is long overdue'. He also cheered the removal of the wellbeing requirements, which he dubbed the Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream Bill when they were proposed by Labour, for the second time, in 2017. However Seymour later expressed reservations about local government minister Simon Watts' proposed cap on rates increases. 'Don't cap your income until you've got your spending under control,' he warned. NZ First leader Winston Peters was even blunter, RNZ's Lillian Hanly reports. 'Doctor, heal thyself,' Peters opined, arguing that central government's own spending record left it in no position to preach to others about fiscal restraint. Tikanga or 'red tape'? Seymour's speech also ignited controversy with his attack on what he called 'ceremonial chanting' in the consenting process – a reference to clauses in resource consents requiring karakia or other tikanga Māori. As Māni Dunlop reports in Te Ao Māori News, the line was in his prepared remarks but not in the speech he delivered at the conference. However Seymour doubled down later that day, claiming that developers were backed into a corner over karakia, believing they had to allow their use to avoid controversy. The comments brought Seymour his second rebuke of the week from Peters: 'Why am I responding to what David Seymour doesn't know? Excuse me,' said the NZ First leader, adding that he had spent much of his career defending the 'right protocol'. Karakia, he said, are 'appropriate when used correctly'. Writing in The Spinoff, Liam Rātana notes that such clauses are typically inserted by mutual agreement to build respectful relationships with mana whenua, and argues that Seymour's complaints are based on misunderstandings of both tikanga and how consent conditions actually work. 'While highlighting these clauses as unnecessary 'red tape' and 'roadblocks', Seymour says his changes will put 'power back with communities',' Liam writes. 'I wonder which communities he's talking about?'
