Media Release: Tuesday 16 August 2016

Investment to help transform Levin into innovative lifestyle centre

The potential for Levin to transform into a lifestyle centre specialising in living innovations for New Zealand’s older population has received a significant funding boost.

The Government has announced it will contribute $250,000 to help Levin and the wider District pioneer these developments, as part of the Manawatū-Whanganui Economic Action Plan launched on Friday.

In 2015, the Government’s Regional Growth Study highlighted emerging opportunities in fields such as tourism, aged care and business outsourcing, as well as scope to build on the region’s existing strengths in the primary sector.
As a result, the Manawatū-Whanganui Economic Action Plan has been developed by business leaders, iwi, hapu, and councils in partnership with central government. The Action Plan identifies tangible opportunities and strategies across all sectors that will enable the acceleration of social and economic growth in the region by 2025.

The $250,000 Government investment will go towards a multi-faceted pilot project to address the growing aged population, including to:

• Rethink how services are delivered and made more accessible for older people in communities
• Address the cost of living for older people
• Improve the quality of life for older people
• Transform Levin and Horowhenua into an inclusive lifestyle centre specialising in innovation for living

Horowhenua District Mayor Brendan Duffy says this is a great opportunity for Levin and Horowhenua to be the pilot location from which to prototype the concept and roll it out across other parts of the region and wider.
“The priority has been to develop a 10-year master plan for the region. That master plan will explore Levin and Horowhenua being a suitable location to invest and test new technologies, spatial planning, skills and facilities,” he said.
“This works very well with our aspiration to move Levin gradually from being largely a rural service centre to a lifestyle centre. This type of future is a real possibility for our area and we should embrace it.”
Mayor Duffy says one example is increasing digital connection and creating smart homes with connectivity to medical and aged-care support.
He says this will help older people stay living in their homes for longer, and therefore integrated and continuing to contribute to their communities - inter-generational communities.

“The $250,000 investment is actually a significant measure that the Government is serious about supporting these kinds of initiatives, to help us be proactive not reactive,” he said.

“And, Horowhenua is well-suited, being not too small and not too large, to make this work. But it’s not just about us looking after older people in our district or region; it’s about us being amazingly innovative and finding solutions that we can market nationwide and ultimately out into the world. This is not dream-land, it’s potentially what we could actually achieve.”

More information on the Manawatū-Whanganui Economic Action Plan is available on the Accelerate25 website: www.accelerate25.co.nz

ENDS

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