And so the cuts begin

The new Council has hardly paused for breath before launching into a round of savage cuts to important investments made by the previous City Vision led Council.

As reported by City Vision Talk back on September 24, C&R has a policy of spending cuts that target important community investments.

John Bank's idea
of affordable housing

First on the blocks is the Affordable Housing scheme. This relatively modest Council programme involved partnering with the New Zealand Housing organisation to build 100 affordable homes over the next four years.

Affordable housing is clearly a real issue for Auckland families, and this was a modest first step towards finding some solutions to the problem.

C&R and John Banks are however hell bent on continuing with the zealous drive they started between 2001-2004 to remove Council from having any role in making our city a decent, liveable, and just place to inhabit. For these old idealogical warhorses it is back to the 1990s - cuts to public services and bugger the poor and middle income famlies who suffer.

Watch this space for further announcements from C&R and Banks about cuts to community facilites and projects, and probably a proposal to increase the Uniform Annual Charge (cutting the rates for the richest Aucklanders and raising them for everyone else). City Vision will be campaigning hard against all of these regressive measures.

See here and here for City Vision Press releases about the affordable housing issue.