Pipiri | August 2024
Kia ora koutou, and welcome to our August panui | eNews for 2024
This month’s eNews features:
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Upcoming Housing Developments in the Region
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Regional Adaptation Project RoadListen – what we’re hearing
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REDP Refresh – Wellington regional economic plan identifies ‘pockets of growth’
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Regional Economic Development Plan Implementation Activity Update
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New Urban Design Toolkit Available
Industry News
Upcoming Housing Developments in the Region
Pictured above: Render image of Mayfair Apartments planned for Wellington
The Wairarapa-Wellington-Horowhenua Future Development Strategy plans for 99,000 additional homes in the region over the next 30 years. That’s a big number which breaks down to 3,300 homes annually, or 275 per month.
With a region this large it is difficult to maintain an up-to-date view of what housing is planned to be developed, although we do have building consent numbers which show what has already been built (noting that not every consent for a new house results in a new house). You can view building consent data here: WRLC Housing Data.
The Wellington Regional Leadership Committee Secretariat have started to collect publicly available housing development information to provide an overview of known upcoming developments….
Regional Adaptation Project RoadListen – What We Heard
The Future Development Strategy identified our region’s vulnerability to climate change impacts, and the need to take action to improve our resilience and avoid risks from natural hazards.
Like roads, water pipes, electricity and the lives of the people in our communities – the contributors and consequences of climate change doesn’t stop at council, iwi or central government boundaries. So it makes sense that we work together to manage this issue as a region.
What do people, communities and organisations around the region need to support their work on climate adaptation?
We’ve been getting out and about, to find out – on the Adaptation RoadListen.
Project Lead Tom FitzGerald met with every key partner of the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee: all 10 local government partners, six central government agencies, seven Iwi and mana whenua partners, as well as relevant agencies including Wellington Water, WREMO and Lifelines. He attended the Festival for the Future to connect with Rangatahi, who will be impacted the most by what we set ourselves up to do next. Find out more about what we heard:
REDP Refresh – Wellington regional economic plan identifies ‘pockets of growth’
“Work to bolster the number of jobs and economic opportunities in the Wellington region is starting to pay off”, says WellingtonNZ Business and Innovation general manager Stu Taylor.
Analysis of the first full year of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan shows job growth in some sectors, new spending and successful initiatives to identify and develop opportunities.
The Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan was launched in 2022 by WellingtonNZ, the region’s economic development agency. It guides the long-term direction of the regional economy and includes a set of initiatives focusing on four sectors: screen and gaming, science and technology, food and fibre and tourism.
The plan identifies priorities for growth agreed by the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee.
“The region has been hit hard this year by the state of the global economy and job cutbacks. However, what we can see is that the initiatives in the REDP are producing pockets of growth and innovation that are creating jobs for our growing population.”
Regional Economic Development Plan – Implementation Activity
WellingtonNZ have launched the refreshed Regional Economic Development Plan on behalf of the WRLC, alongside a summary of REDP highlights from 2023/24. The updated REDP webpage is available here.
One focus area of the REDP is the skills, talent and education required to develop our future workforce. Some of the initiatives being supported within this area include:
- Tūhura Tech, which provides free technology education to young people aged 10-18 and upskilling opportunities for educators, to develop highly-skilled, job-ready technologists and innovators with critical and creative thinking skills. Tūhura Tech is a new initiative in the REDP, and has recently expanded into Porirua and Naenae and won top-place at the DownUnderCTF competition. WellingtonNZ have provided laptops to be recycled for use in the programme, and encourage any other organisations looking to rehome IT equipment to reach out to the team at Tūhura Tech through contact@tuhuratech.org.nz. Read more about their story here.
- The Wellington E2E Centre’s STEAMM programme, which supports education and career achievements of girls in schools. The pilot programme has expanded into three schools and 22 learners. “It’s about helping young people to develop positive attitudes and practices for obtaining the knowledge, life skills and career perspectives they need to achieve goals,” says E2E founder Carey Teng. Read more about what inspired the programme here.
- Girls who Grow, a programme focused on engaging the next generation of female change makers, leaders and environmental guardians into climate positive agriculture. Following initial workshops in August, the imagination centred challenges will be held in mid-September and require local mentors and judges to support students with their ideas throughout the day. To find out more contact connect@girlswhogrow.co.nz.
- Summer of Tech and Engineering, who are still looking for more summer internship roles for the knowledgeable students looking for work this summer. Find out more and contact the team here.
New Urban Design Toolkit Available
Greater Wellington Regional Council and WSP recently collaborated to produce a new Urban Design Toolkit (‘the toolkit’) is a practical and highly visual guide to support planning and design of future communities in the region. It has been developed to help support decision makers and communities to take an active role in the conversations and processes to shape the neighbourhoods and centres of the future.
Central to the toolkit is the recognition that urban design will be critical to reducing transport emissions in the region by decreasing our reliance on private vehicles, while also enhancing livability.
The toolkit is designed to be accessible for non-experts to help support communities, local government, iwi and hapu, developers and other stakeholders to influence better outcomes for their community.
Industry News
The articles below both create a strong case for the important work of our Regional Food System Plan, which is designed to foster a sustainable, locally-based, and equitable food system in our region, to support our people, and economy and our environment, while ensuring a safe food future for generations to come.
New Zealand’s Food Insecurity Increasing
A new UN report indicates that New Zealand’s food insecurity is not only higher than many comparable countries but is also increasing at a faster rate.
Food insecurity in New Zealand has risen from 10% (2014-2016) to 16.4% (2020-2023), with significant impacts on Māori, Pacific children, and low-income households. The Ministry of Health’s 2022-23 annual health survey revealed that over one in five children live in households where food runs out sometimes or often.
Cost to eat healthy food is rising
Different factors have contributed to food price inflation – but new research shows some produce is costing Kiwis more than others.
Data from 2014 to 2023 found prices of processed food rose by 14%, compared to fruit and vegetables which jumped by 45% in the same period.
Lincoln University agricultural economics professor Alan Renwick said this shows inflation was not being felt evenly.
WRLC Publications
Keep in touch
One of our guiding proverbs at WRLC is, ‘He waka eke noa‘ – we’re all in this together. If there is anything you’d like to share or know more about, please do not hesitate to contact us at: hello@wrlc.org.nz
About the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee
The Wellington Regional Leadership Committee is a union of councils, iwi and central government in the Wairarapa-Wellington-Horowhenua region, formed to work collaboratively on our shared, cross-boundary challenges, in order to positively shape the future of this region.
WRLC exists to enable better ways of working together to cultivate a region where people want to live, work and thrive.
Our projects cover the five broad key areas of iwi capacity, housing, climate, transport and economic development. Find out more on our project page. You can get in touch at hello@wrlc.org.nz.
