Update 13 May 2020

Local Government Response Unit main page

Information on Alert Level 2

On Monday 11 May, the Prime Minister announced a phased approach to moving to Alert Level 2 beginning at 11.59pm tonight. This phased approach includes a maximum number of people that may gather. This will be reassessed regularly.

Today the Minister of Health announced funeral directors can obtain dispensation to allow up to 50 people to attend a funeral/tangihanga, as long as the Ministry of Health is satisfied that a range of public health measures can consistently be met.

We are conscious many of you have questions about how these restrictions on gatherings can be applied to council meetings and other council services.

We are working with the National Crisis Management Centre on this, but pending completion of the legislative process, we are currently unable to provide definitive updated guidance.

We would encourage councils to continue to hold meetings virtually until we can provide you with this updated and signed-out guidance.  We expect to be able to provide this in the near future.

We will distribute the final document in a stand-alone email to you all as soon as this is approved. We will also upload this to our webpage.

We appreciate that as we transition to Alert Level 2, councils will need to take some pragmatic decisions on a case-by-case basis about the services you provide. You are best placed to consider how to apply the central framework found on the COVID-19 Government website and our guidance when finalised, in the light of your unique communities.

However, if you have questions we are on hand to support you throughout your COVID-19 response and recovery, please send these into your usual SOLGM, LGNZ, DIA contact or this inbox.

Triennial revaluation deferrals - Rating Valuations Act

The COVID-19 Response (Further Management Measures) Legislation Bill – commonly referred to as the Omnibus Bill -- introduced last week contains amendments to the Rating Valuations Act.

The impact of this, and associated measures, for relevant councils is as follows:

Councils may apply to the Valuer-General to have the triennial revaluation due to occur in 2020/21 deferred for one year.

The Valuer-General must be satisfied that the council is unlikely or not reasonably able to produce a credible revaluation due to inspection issues or availability/reliability of market evidence.

The Valuer-General will soon be writing to all Councils that have a 2020 revaluation.

The Valuer-General will develop guidelines to assist Councils understanding of the process, how to make an application and the sorts of supporting information required.

It is expected that most councils will proceed with their 2020 revaluations, albeit on a slightly delayed timetable.

Response Unit Recovery workstream

The Response Unit Recovery Reference Group met on Friday last week.

It discussed a number of matters including:

• Further refinement of a programme structure.
• The importance of maintaining clear, collaborative communications.

The Recovery Reference Group will meet again on Friday this week and continue to meet weekly as the Response Unit it moves from response to recovery.

We will communicate progress of the Recovery work and roles and responsibilities of parties in more detail over the coming weeks through this COVID-19 email.