Government Confirms Regional Councils Will Be Scrapped by 2028 and Sets Three-Month Merger Deadline

Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop have given New Zealand’s 78 councils three months to come up with their own amalgamation proposals or have one imposed by central government, with regional councils confirmed for abolition before the 2028 local body elections.

The Tuesday announcement formalises the most aggressive overhaul of local government since the Auckland supercity, although the scale is now national. Bishop told councils the message was simple. “Lead your own reform, or we will do it for you. Either way, change is coming,” he said. Watts told RNZ the priority was “larger, more efficient unitary authorities that streamline functions, reduce duplication, and improve decision-making”.

Proposals will be assessed by officials from the new Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport ministry, known as MCERT, against criteria including practicality, simplicity, value for money, effective representation, timeliness and how the new structure works with the resource management overhaul. Decisions are expected this year, detailed designs signed off in 2027, and the new councils stood up before the 2028 elections.

The most concrete piece of the announcement was Bishop’s confirmation that regional councils as a tier of government would not survive. “Put it this way, regional councillors will not be elected at the 2028 local body elections,” he said. The current system separates regional councils, which manage water catchments, environmental rules, civil defence and flood protection, from city and district councils responsible for roads, water, libraries and pools. Unitary authorities such as Auckland, Nelson, Tasman, Marlborough, Gisborne and the Chatham Islands already combine the two roles.

Watts said proposals did not need to cover an entire region but had to demonstrate “clear support, strong leadership, and real benefits for communities”. Councils would receive no extra funding to draw up their plans, although central officials could provide support similar to the role they played in water reform. Bishop urged councils not to spend ratepayer money on “hordes of expensive consultants” and indicated the Commerce Commission would eventually monitor whether rates delivered value for money.

For councils that miss the three-month deadline, the government will impose what Watts called a backstop, a standardised approach involving transitional governance arrangements while the new structure is bedded in. Bishop said the design of the backstop was still being worked out but it would likely resemble the Combined Territories Board approach floated in November.

Southland is already further down the track than most. The Local Government Commission has been investigating a proposal from Southland’s mayor to merge the region’s four councils into two unitary authorities, a project that was expected to take three to five years end to end. Environment Southland chair Jeremy McPhail said the new ultimatum sharply compressed that timeline.

“For Southland, the key question is whether we shape that change ourselves, or have it shaped for us,” McPhail said. “It’s up to us, as Southland councils, to work closely together to develop a proposal that reflects our region’s unique communities, geography, and economy.” McPhail said he was waiting on government advice about how the Commission’s existing work fitted with the new three-month clock. He was also disappointed that regional councils had been excluded from putting forward proposals, given Environment Southland had been part of the merger conversation since 2024.

Bishop said about 1150 groups and individuals, including 70 councils plus iwi and sector groups, had given feedback after the November shake-up announcement, and that the response was strongly in favour of change. He said he had expected resistance and instead found mayors keen to move. “Several mayors have told us they’re ready to move now, with clear ideas about what should change and how to do it.”

Bishop named six regions where amalgamation conversations were already advanced. Those were Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay. He defended pairing council reform with the resource management overhaul rather than waiting, saying “fixing the planning system whilst leaving local government untouched would just lock in many of the same problems”.

He also signalled significant central government investment in what he called a “digital backend” for council planning, including a national map of natural hazards and flood-prone areas accessible from a single online portal. Implementation would take “two to three, four years” but would change the way planning, infrastructure and housing investment worked.

Three months has drawn questions about whether councils have enough time to consult properly. Bishop dismissed the concern. “They can meet the three-month timeframe,” he said. “Honestly, local government spends its life consulting people. Three months is more than enough time.” He conceded not every mayor was given advance notice but said “quite a few have”, along with several iwi.

The political timing is sensitive. The government’s earlier signal that only five of 78 councils could meet a proposed rates cap had already strained the relationship with Local Government New Zealand, and the Finlayson dispute inside the National, NZ First and ACT coalition has consumed bandwidth that could otherwise be applied to policy delivery. Cutting the number of councils, abolishing regional councils as a class and rebuilding the planning system simultaneously is the most consequential structural reform the coalition has attempted, and it now arrives with a clock running.

The next three months will test whether the government’s gamble that mayors prefer self-directed mergers over imposed ones actually holds. For ratepayers, whatever emerges is likely to be the most visible reshaping of local government in a generation.

What do you think? Should regional councils be scrapped and councils forced to merge within three months, or is the timeline too tight for proper consultation? Tell us in the comments below.