“The council’s finance and performance committee voted in September to dispose of a swath of council-owned properties across the city. The move is part of an effort to raise $224 million from “asset recycling” through the council’s emergency budget.”
This was one of my major issues with the Emergency Budget - a firesale of over $200m worth of assets is extremely shortsighted and will do nothing for the long term viability of our city.
I'm not ideologically opposed to asset sales - sometimes it makes sense to sell some unused land to fund something better and more useful for the community. But selling them to fund a shortfall in revenue means we're loosing out, especially when it's clear that even this massive selloff will do little to plug the gap. There's also a very real concern that the timing of these sales and the volume will only hurt the value of the properties, further reducing the return.
These decisions are being made without consideration of the long term plans for the area. The decision to sell has disregarded local feedback, including the Howick Local Board which was extremely clear (and fair) in their feedback. Panuku (Auckland Council's development arm responsible for managing this process) have a long history of being extremely opaque and I echo the concerns of many that this process won't result in good outcomes.
It's great to see that our two councillors (who voted for the Emergency Budget) have now voted against these sales. It's also good to see two of our local MPs are adding their voice to this.