Regenerate Christchurch: opportunity for greater leadership

Media Release

7 December 2015
Regenerate Christchurch: an opportunity for greater leadership and confidence

Property Council welcomes the establishment of Regenerate Christchurch as the strategic driver for the regeneration of Christchurch’s urban form.

Nearly five years on from the devastating earthquakes, Christchurch needs to transition fully from recovery to regeneration; and enable greater community and private sector involvement in how this occurs.

Property Council believes splitting up the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority’s (CERA) responsibilities from its current single-body format will offer the opportunity for different organisations to focus on specialised areas of interest for the greater benefit of Canterbury.

Under CERA’s existing arrangement, planning and development functions have become increasingly blurred. This has created uncertainty which has reduced investor confidence and slowed the rebuild.

Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend says establishing Regenerate Christchurch and empowering it to develop and implement an overarching strategic vision for Christchurch will bring investor confidence back into the city.

“We believe it makes good sense to have different organisations focus on diversified and specific outcomes.

“We are optimistic Regenerate Christchurch will be able to provide the strategic framework to guide effective city planning and ensure Christchurch is a vibrant, liveable, and economically successful city.”

Property Council believes it is important that Regenerate Christchurch’s board sufficiently reflects the needs of central and local government, private sector and Maori.

“We would like to see a commercial property sector representative on the board to give the board the expertise required to fulfil its mandate. This ensures the decisions that come out of Regenerate Christchurch are aligned with private sector and market realities.

“What we do not want to see is a repeat of previous situations where the public sector manufactures decisions without adequate private sector consultation, resulting in unrealistic or detrimental consequences.”

Property Council believes Regenerate Christchurch’s role as a special purpose vehicle has the potential to enable greater strategic leadership locally.

“The community and private sector must have a say in the future regeneration of Christchurch. That’s why it’s imperative for Regenerate Christchurch to work collaboratively and engage meaningfully with stakeholders for this input to be effective and robust.

“One of the most vocal criticisms of CERA has been its inward focus, lack of engagement and not gaining the buy-in of stakeholders. Property Council does not want to see this occur with Regenerate Christchurch.”

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