Council's 'friendly' guidelines

FILE

Rotorua District Council says it will take a good look at a report on how to be "business friendly" but believes it's already moving in the right direction.

Local Government New Zealand this week released its Business Friendly Councils report, which includes guidelines and case studies on how councils can become "effective, innovative and world class in the role of championing business success".

Although focused on the "New Zealand Core Cities" of Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, it is considered applicable to all New Zealand councils.

The report identifies six key principles which includes fostering excellent relationships, identifying local challenges and business needs, providing certainty and clarity for business decision-making, being proactive and responding rapidly to disruptions.

Council economic and regulatory services group manager Mark Rawson said the council will review the report to see if any elements could be further developed for Rotorua.

Mr Rawson said being business friendly was a high priority for the council and that had been emphasised in the Rotorua 2030 vision and goals.

"A prime example of our new mayor and council's commitment to supporting business development was the recent decision to become the first council in the country to scrap development contributions in their existing form. That decision has been welcomed by the business community and investors as a bold business friendly initiative."

Grow Rotorua and Destination Rotorua Marketing were also focused on building strong relationships with business, Mr Rawson said.

He said the council was constantly working to reduce timeframes for processing consent applications and to make the regulatory process as streamlined and customer friendly as possible.

Darren McGarvie, chairman of local business networking group Rotorua X, said the report was relevant to Rotorua "given our local economy has been languishing and the sizeable influence that our district council has on economic development".

"Notwithstanding the need for quality infrastructure for business, more importantly Rotorua has been missing a clear vision and leadership until recently. Collaboration as a community is critical for growth and leadership plays a key role in bringing together the organisations that are dedicated to supporting business.

"In other words, facilitating business partnerships."

Mr McGarvie said there had been excellent initiatives such as the launch of Grow Rotorua, a dedicated manager to facilitate large scale developments and a focus on water quality which supported tourism.

But he said there was room for improvement. "There is a gap in terms of supporting SMEs which are the backbone of the local economy and can be sometimes overlooked in favour of large scale initiatives.

"There is also the Maori economy and the significant potential of the local asset base owned by Maori trusts and incorporations."

The Local Government Forum welcomed the release of the report, with chairman Michael Barnett saying the performance of local government was critically important to business success.

"The six principles in Business Friendly Councils are high level and process-oriented, and much will depend on how they are implemented."

The initiative has also been welcomed by BusinessNZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly.

"Hopefully as a result of the guidelines we will also see smaller local businesses feeling the effect of more business friendly councils," he said.

To view the report go to www.lgnz.co.nz/assets/Publications/LGNZ-Business-Friendly-Councils-2014.pdf.