Where did Auckland go well and where are we struggling on?

 

Last year and rather quietly Auckland Council released the annual implementation for the Auckland Plan. You can read the update and technical report at the bottom of this post.

I have collated a series of Tweets on the  key point arising from the Auckland Plan update which can be read HERE.

Social and Health

The latest figures show Auckland is going well in things like Early Childhood Education which is tracking towards 100% participation rate by 2021. Government might miss their target of 98% this year (at 96%) but that one is minor given we should hit that 98% next year. I also noticed a model being used in South Auckland ECE’s centres is being rolled out across the country as well.

Crime has fallen below the ‘800 crimes committed per 10,000 population figure by 2040’ with the 2014 figures at 755. However, there is always the case of doing better as well as unreported crime as well. Given the media coverage last year with the West Auckland crime situation I wonder if there will be a blip in the 2015 figures?

Recreation is continuing to track well as Auckland both gets more active and planning policies encourage such recreation. New parks, cycle ways and playgrounds will always go a long way in boosting our recreational levels.

 

Environment

Not doing very well here Auckland and we need to pull finger with contaminated recycling meaning more goes to landfill costing us in the long run. Water reduction rates are also off target as well and it does affect you via your water bill. So is that tap leaking or those showers a tad too long (or rather I believe the figures capture the long hot Summer we had in 2013/2014 where even we had a high water bill due to constant irrigation).

 

Economy

The main one I watch is productivity and this is where Auckland really needs to work on if we are to power ahead as New Zealand’s sole International City.

 

That was the 2013 year (update was released in 2014) where productivity gains stalled at 0%. The graph below shows for the 2014 year (update was released in 2015) our productivity has slipped into negative figures:

6.2 Increase annual average productivity growth from 1 per cent p.a. in the last decade to 2 per cent p.a. for the next 30 years.

Measure: Auckland’s GDP per hour worked (*).

Source: Infometrics, regional economic profile and Statistics New Zealand, Earnings and Employment Survey
Frequency: Annually.
Availability: Customised data from Statistics New Zealand
Note: Average labour productivity growth in the decade to 2011 was just under 1 per cent (0.94%) based on per capita GDP. The target or the measure should be reworded to be consistent and facilitate measurement with available data.

Relevance Productivity relates to how efficiently a firm or any other organisation can turn its inputs, such as labour and capital, into outputs in the form of goods and
services. Labour productivity is a measure of the amount produced for a certain amount of labour effort. It is closely related to individual incomes (i.e. wages and salaries) and living standards, and it can be measured with reasonable reliability. The simplest measure is output per worker (GDP per employed person) which can increase if workers produce more in the hours they work, or if they work longer hours. The ideal measure, therefore, is output (GDP) per hour worked. The main advantage of this is it takes variations in the number of hours worked per worker into account, although it is more complex to estimate.

Analysis Since 2001, growth in both GDP per worker and per hour worked has mostly been well below 2 per cent, with a sharp drop in 2009 and rebound in 2010. The average growth of GDP per hour worked for the year ending March 2014 was minus 0.3 percent, following minimal growth in 2013 (0.2%) and 2012 (0.1%). GDP per worker grew somewhat faster (2014 +0.9%; 2013 +0.8%,
2012 +0.8%), due to increases in hours worked per person employed.

……

Not very good at all and measures will need to be found how to get productivity up to that 2% level if we are to compete with the world.

 

Transport

Apparently morning peak congestion have been getting better since 2003 on the roads but the inter-peak congestion worse. That would be true given how early the Southern Motorway coty-bound packs up from Mt Wellington to Greenlane during the week and even weekends now. However, on the bright side public transport patronage is heading towards the 140 million passenger trips per annum by 2022 with rail leading the growth at 22.7% currently.

 

Jobs and Future Prospects

The above is good news especially as the quoted text says:

“to improve their quality of life and how they do work and do business (and hopefully get that productivity gains to 2% year on year).

 

Also in terms of jobs:

NEW INTEGRATED BUSINESS PRECINCT PLAN FOR THE INDUSTRIAL SOUTH

The Auckland Plan anticipates an extra 276,700 jobs will be needed in Auckland by 2041. A substantial share of these jobs will be located in the zoned industrial locations in south Auckland. These areas include some of the prime industrial and manufacturing locations within the region and they play a strong role in Auckland’s economy and the economic growth of Auckland and New Zealand, generating $18 billion of GDP in 2012.

An Integrated Business Precinct Plan has been adopted which provides a framework for the zoned industrial precincts for either light or heavy industrial uses within the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan south of the city centre. It seeks to support these industrial areas in a co-ordinated way so that they can continue to contribute to the delivery of the economic priorities of the Auckland Plan, Auckland’s Economic Development Strategy and TSI. At both a regional and national level the industrial precincts will have a role in contributing to government’s business growth agenda outcomes.

….

Source: Page 37 of the Auckland Plan Implementation Annual Update – 2015

 

The Implementation Update clearly demonstrates very clearly that not all roads as some thing lead to the City Centre. But rather we have multiple roads leading to multiple places given the industrial complexes in the South will continue to be our engine rooms. I know this, certain Councillors know this, Panuku knows this.

The key know is to take the community with Council and business as the engine rooms of the South continue to ramp up as they will.

 

Auckland continues to do well while there are challenges we need to face. But the future ahead does look bright and we should not flinch in grabbing the opportunities coming before us if we truly wish to be a 21st Century International City!

 

Auckland Plan Implementation Update 2015

 

TR2015 030 Auckland Plan Targets Monitoring Report 2015