dec 16, 2001 - Birch delivers 'razor' report for ACC - controversial housing plans
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Selling pensioner houses as tenants die and raising pensioner rents are among the recommendations in Sir William Birch's $35 million cost-cutting report for the Auckland City Council.
The former Finance Minister says present tenants should be allowed to remain in their homes for as long as they want to.
But when they move out or die, none of the 400 people on the waiting list should be allowed to take their place.
Sir William had been asked to find ways of cutting $25 million on "non-core" services, to recommend assets for sale and to look into more user-pays.
He has come up with about 50 recommendations to trim council spending and hold rates, ranging from the predictable to the unexpected.
Predictably, Sir William recommends the sale of the council's airport shares, general housing and carparking buildings; scrapping the inorganic waste collection and organic waste coupon scheme; and slashing the public relations budget by $2.5 million over three years.
Among the surprises are recommendations that residents should no longer have to get a resource consent to trim or cut down mature trees and that people mow their own grass verges.
Sir William said the fact that 95 per cent of tree-trimming applications were approved showed the requirement was an unnecessary piece of bureaucracy that could eventually save $450,000 a year. Auckland was the only council in the region that mowed verges.
His 69-page report also recommends cuts to arts, culture and sponsorship of up to 33 per cent - the art gallery and the zoo are understood to be targets - and hints at higher library charges and fewer libraries.
He calls for a private-public partnership for Metrowater and ending a $1.3 million rebate for low-income people and community organisations on their water bills.
Mayor John Banks said the council would be mindful of balancing the need for ratepayers to get better value for money against enhancing the soul and spirit of the city.
The council meets on Wednesday to consider which recommendations to run with in next year's budget.
Mr Banks said he would write to every pensioner telling them they would have a council pensioner unit for as long as they lived.
But Mr Banks said the gradual sale of the council's 1641 pensioner units could mean pensioners were moved from one home to another as blocks of units were sold.
Sir William recommends raising rents from a quarter of the pension - $58.60 for single people and $90.20 for couples - to $79 for bedsits and $92 for units with bedrooms.
After getting an accommodation supplement to cover part of the increase, single tenants would be between $5 and $8 a week worse off and couples would pay an extra 50c. The changes would add about $2.5 million a year to the council coffers.
The leader of the council's left, Dr Bruce Hucker, said the Birch "razor gang" report was based on the assumption that money was the measure of all things, that people and communities did not matter and that the environment was unimportant.
Source: Tenants for life in Birch plan.
By Bernard Orsman.
543 words
15 December 2001
New Zealand Herald
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