Christchurch City Councillors Want Asset-Sale Rethink... | Stuff.co.nz

The idea of selling non-strategic Christchurch City Council assets is finding favour with some city councillors.

While opposed to selling off council-controlled organisations (CCOs) such as Christchurch International Airport Ltd, the Lyttelton Port Company, Orion and Enable Services, many are open to the idea of divesting some other assets that are classed as strategic, if the price is right.

"The infrastructure companies should never be for sale as far as I am concerned, but as for everything else, if it's too good a deal to turn down, then let's consider it," Cr Barry Corbett said yesterday.

Last week, Prime Minister John Key suggested partial sales of CCOs as a way of helping fund the city's anchor projects and ease the council's debt burden for earthquake recovery.

That idea has already been ruled out by the council, which in its draft Three Year Plan signalled its intention to hang onto its assets.

However, there is a growing willingness among councillors to at least have more debate on the issue.

Cr Jamie Gough said it was time the council reviewed what constituted a strategic asset in the post-quake environment and considered sale options for those that were not.

"How can we make decisions on strategic and non-strategic assets when there's no clear line of thought on which one is which?"

The council had only three possible revenue streams from which to fund its share of the rebuild - borrowing, rates or asset sales - and it made sense to explore all three, Gough said.

"We need to define what a strategic asset is for Christchurch. Everything changed on February 22, 2011, and I think we'd be remiss, if not stupid, to not get clarity on where that leaves us with regard to strategic CCOs."

Whether the council needed to have control of a contracting company such as City Care, a "bit player" in an open and competitive market, was debatable, he said.

However, Mayor Bob Parker said the only assets the council could consider selling easily were its land holdings, such as the Henderson properties, but panicking about funding for the city's anchor projects was unnecessary.

"There's nothing stopping us having that discussion [about asset sales] in the future, but it's certainly not necessary at the moment and it would be foolhardy, really foolhardy, to rush into that."

Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button said she was open to a public debate on which assets were non-negotiable and which could be sold.

"Some assets, in the right environment, we could sell," she said, noting it was healthy to review assets on a regular basis "just as you do at home".

Council corporate and financial committee chairwoman Cr Helen Broughton believed some parcels of council-owned land could be sold, but she personally believed there were merits in having companies such as Red Bus and City Care in council hands.

NOT FOR SALE ? but should they be?

Red Bus Ltd ($23 million)

City Care Ltd ($136m)

Selwyn Plantation Board ($16m)

EcoCentral ($7m)?

- ? Fairfax NZ News

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Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8724729/Councillors-want-asset-sale-rethink

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