Environment Southland announced this week it had made a financial model which would test costs, savings and financial implications of different scenarios in the face of sweeping government reform.
Council interim chief executive Rob Phillips said the work showed the biggest pressure on rates related to future infrastructure and asset replacement, not operating costs.
A report prepared for that meeting said staff were testing assumptions with other councils to make sure the model’s results were up to scratch.
It noted transition costs for an amalgamation were likely to be ‘‘significant and front-loaded’’.
The council’s model was created in response to the government’s Head Start pathway, which was announced on May 5 and gives councils three months to create reorganisation proposals to improve efficiency.
Regional councils have not been invited to submit Head Start proposals and their functions are proposed to be mopped up by a board made up of district and city mayors.
The council report said a key aspect of the model’s creation was to understand how regional council functions could work in different scenarios.
Reform has been a hot topic in Southland since August 2024, when Southland Mayor Rob Scott went live with his vision of combining the region’s four councils into two authorities.
Mr Scott’s proposal is still being investigated by the Local Government Commission, which is yet to determine if it will enter a third phase.
An August 9 deadline for Head Start proposals has been set by the government with a warning issued that decisions could be made on councils’ behalf if they do not come up with anything.
In Southland, a working group has been set up by the Invercargill City Council, which has publicly backed the creation of a single unitary authority to govern the region.
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
