$154 million hole in Chch economy due to Govt delays

new-zealand-labour-party

Tue May 10 2016 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

$154 million hole in Chch economy due to Govt delays

Tuesday, 10 May 2016, 3:00 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Megan Woods
MP for Wigram
Canterbury Spokesperson

MEDIA STATEMENT

10 July 2016

Ongoing delays with the Government’s central city anchor projects have robbed Canterbury of $154 million in crown investment, says Labour’s Canterbury Spokesperson Megan Woods.

“The central city rebuild has been plagued with delays as Gerry Brownlee struggles to get the Government’s act together. Now we can see the cost of these delays - $154 million in crown investment that could have gone into stimulating the local economy.

“Figures released today in the Financial Statements of the Government to March 2016 by the Treasury show that the Government has spent $154 million less in the central city than forecast – a problem they put down to ongoing delays in delivering the much-hyped anchor projects. This is an increase from the already huge underspend in February of $104 million. In just one month the underspend has increased by $48 million – or nearly 50%.

“Five years on from the earthquakes, much of our central city is still deserted. That’s because the Government has been dragging the chain on the projects that were meant to revitalise our CBD.

“For five years, CERA failed to regenerate our central city, as Gerry Brownlee made promise after promise and kept telling us everything was fine. With the new agencies of Regenerate Christchurch and Otakaro now leading the charge, it’s well past time we saw progress in our central city,” says Megan Woods.

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