The Government put out its Simplifying Local Government proposal earlier in the year and on 5 May 2026 announced the introduction of the ‘Head Start Pathway’ to expedite the process. The Pathway gives councils a three-month window to put forward their own reorganisation proposals.
Other changes have also been put in place, based on the feedback the Government received through its submission process on its original Simplifying Local Government proposal. See the chart below.
Regional councillors will now see out their term until 2028, but regional councils are not able to submit a reorganisation proposal through the Head Start Pathway.
It is unclear, at this stage, what it will mean for the Local Government Commission process Southland councils are involved in, and we are awaiting advice from central government.
Councils that do not engage with the Head Start Pathway will default into a ‘backstop approach’, the details of which are yet to be released. Those councils will still be required to focus on delivering the new planning systems.
The Government’s initial proposal to simplify local government included removing regional councillors, forming a Combined Territories Board (CTB) with the mayors to lead regional issues and govern the regional council. Crown Commissioners could also be appointed. The CTB would develop a plan for how the councils work together, in consultation with the public, and approved by the Government.
See Environment Southland’s submission on the Government’s original proposal here. It agreed reform was needed, but concluded that the proposal undermined democratic legitimacy, underestimated the workload on mayors, dismissed the contribution of regionally elected councillors (at a time of resource management reform), and risked institutional instability with so many reforms happening concurrently.
