Storm recovery
Our response to the 2023 storm events
Our response to the impacts of the storm events in early 2023 includes:
- repairing our assets (resources we own)
- supporting affected residents
- improving how we prepare for and recover from future climate change and natural hazard events.
It will take many years to repair the significant storm damage to council assets including:
- the transport network (roads and bridges)
- water networks
- parks and community facilities (like playgrounds, leisure centres and pools).
We will mainly fund this through:
- reorganising where and when we will spend money renewing assets
- expected insurance payments
- specific transport infrastructure funding from central government - both through NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) and the National Resilience Plan, our co-funding agreement with the Crown.
Funding our storm recovery
The Recovery Office provides support for affected residents and will continue to be funded through operating expenditure (costs of day-to-day council operations) budgets for the first year of the long-term plan.
Our central proposal also plans to continue funding towards:
- the voluntary buy-out scheme for residential properties where there is a potential risk to life (Risk Category 3)
- a grant scheme to support property owners where onsite investment could reduce this risk (Risk Category 2P).
These schemes are co-funded by the NZ Government.
Physical and financial resilience
Improving how we prepare for and recover from future climate events is a key part of our central proposal. This includes both financial and physical resilience.
We propose to improve financial resilience through the Auckland Future Fund outlined in the central proposal. We could use some of the fund's proceeds to support response actions.
Physical resilience to climate change is a core part of our asset management plans. We have incorporated it into both new builds and renewals investment.
We also propose important additional investment to address flooding and land stability risk (including the Making Space for Water programme). The National Resilience Plan will fund a proportion of this investment.
Although this spending and investment allows for recovery from the 2023 storm events and helps us plan for and recover from similar future events, it does not go far enough to protect us from all the impacts of climate change.
There is still a need for central and local government to work together to assess the risk from natural hazards and climate change.
Managing hazard risks requires a wider range of planning and funding tools than is currently available to local government.
You should know
The information on this page is an edited version of the proposed Long-term Plan 2024-2034. For more information, see pages 91 of the Long-term Plan 2024-2034 Consultation Document [PDF 17MB].
