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A three month extension to the final settlement date for a small group of residential red zone property owners will ease a number of pressures they are facing, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

The extension will apply to those property owners who under initial rules would have needed to settle with the Crown and vacate the red zone by 30 April 2013.

They will now be able to nominate a new settlement date up until 31 July 2013.

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has today opened the South Island’s first Road of National Significance, the Christchurch Southern Motorway Stage 1.

The $140 million, eight kilometre four-lane motorway and 2.5 km upgrade of Halswell Junction Road, which runs between Collins Street and Halswell Junction Road and then along Halswell Junction Road, was completed within three years – ahead of schedule and on budget.

Today’s launch of the Economic Recovery Programme is an opportunity to reflect on how far Canterbury has come since the earthquakes, and the many reasons we have to be optimistic about the region’s future.

It’s an incredible testament to the resilience of the business community that based on recent estimates regional GDP for Canterbury has bounced back to pre-earthquake levels.

Economic activity data has shown Canterbury to be the fastest growing region in New Zealand over the past 18 months, and the rebuild proper is only just beginning.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has highlighted 20 key projects in the Economic Recovery Programme for Greater Christchurch, which was launched today.

Developed by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the programme lays out a roadmap for economic recovery in the region.

“This has been a thoroughly collaborative process between CERA and MBIE in partnership with local government and the business sector,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the first commercial property purchases for Christchurch’s CBD Blueprint Plan represent an important milestone in the city’s recovery.

“I’m pleased with progress made by the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) in negotiating with landowners to create a willing-buyer willing-seller scenario,” Mr Brownlee says.

Traffic will be slowed and pedestrians given greater priority in the new central Christchurch under a draft transport plan the public is now invited to have their say on.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has today released the Accessible City draft Transport Plan and is inviting the wider community to make their comments and contributions.

Land Information New Zealand is to lead a programme of work to accelerate recovery and rebuild efforts in Canterbury, the Government announced today.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the programme will address barriers to data sharing, provides solutions to harnessing web technology and facilitates 3D visualisation.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced a new training and employment programme to attract workers into trade industries needed for the horizontal rebuild of greater Christchurch.

The programme is part of the Government’s wider infrastructure programme, which is set out in the Building Infrastructure progress report released today.

The Government wants to further test the viability of a ferry terminal at Clifford Bay in Marlborough, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced.

"Cabinet believes the business case we've been presented is strong enough to justify further testing the viability of this major change to New Zealand's transport infrastructure," Mr Brownlee says.

"I have asked the Ministry of Transport, along with the Treasury and the NZ Transport Agency to assemble a specialist project team to undertake this work.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says today’s green zoning of the final eight residential properties in the Port Hills marks the end of an unprecedented programme of Government assistance in natural disaster recovery.

"All 190,000 residential properties in greater Christchurch now have a zoning which gives their owners the ability to move on with their lives," Mr Brownlee says.

"When we started this process we knew it would not be easy and we knew the end results would not please everyone.

Labour leader David Shearer’s decision to give a speech on employment and training in Canterbury today, a region with massive jobs growth, is the latest in a string of hapless own goals, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

“In January there were 5185 people on an unemployment benefit in Christchurch – today there’s 3131,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is applauding the success of the new AMI Stadium in Christchurch, with figures following Tuesday night's All Whites versus Tahiti football match showing over 200,000 tickets have been sold since the venue's launch in March.

"For a city of some 380,000 people this is a truly heartening response, which proves the importance of delivering a multi-use facility at a time when the community is picking itself up and moving on from the earthquakes," Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he is confident progress was made today to overcome and minimise barriers to rebuilding on Technical Category 3 (TC3) land in greater Christchurch.

"Today I hosted around 100 stakeholders in the rebuild, from the insurance, engineering, building, legal and real estate sectors with the goal of finding common ground to resolve issues in TC3," Mr Brownlee says.

Work on Christchurch's new Convention Centre Precinct is underway, with the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) and Christchurch City Council now calling for expressions of interest (EOI) from groups wishing to participate in the project.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the EOI process will enable the private sector to put forward initial proposals for the convention centre, its car parking area, connected retail and commercial operations, and a five star hotel.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced an important milestone in the Government’s residential red zone offer process, with more than 6000 of 7860 property owners having signed agreements to sell their property to the Crown.

“This is an overwhelming endorsement of the process we put in place and means 6090 households have or are making plans to move from the worst affected suburbs to a new life on safe land,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has today announced the parameters of the review of Port Hills land zoning.

As with the flat land, this review will look at the boundaries used to identify residential red and green zones.  In the Port Hills zone boundaries have been drawn up to separate areas where life risk is assessed as above or below acceptable levels.

Red zones have been declared where the level of life risk is considered unacceptable based on GNS modelling, and where area wide mitigation is not considered practical for a range of reasons.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says residents whose dwellings have been seriously affected by the earthquakes can be reassured that financial support remains available, following the extension of the Government’s Temporary Accommodation Allowance (TAA).

“The TAA was originally designed for people whose homes were made uninhabitable by the 4 September 2010 earthquake, and whose insurance cover for temporary accommodation was about to run out,” Mr Brownlee says.

Upcoming demand for workers’ temporary accommodation has prompted changes to the Christchurch City Plan and the Banks Peninsula, Waimakariri and Selwyn district plans to make the development process easier, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

The Minister has used Section 27 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011 to streamline the Resource Management Act and Building Act consenting process. This will ensure the process for developing worker accommodation is simplified and offers more options.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says all 37 remaining residential Port Hills properties at risk from rock roll have now been zoned red and eligible owners will receive a residential red zone offer from the Crown.

The properties, in the Horotane Valley and on Bridle Path Road, are the last of the previously white zoned properties at risk from rock roll or cliff collapse to be zoned in the Port Hills.

The Government will invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to restore the education sector in greater Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Education Minister Hekia Parata announced today.

“The whole education sector has experienced huge disruption following the earthquakes,’’ Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced the basis of Government offers to owners of vacant and commercial/industrial land within the flat land residential red zone, as well as residential properties that are uninsured.

Similar properties in the Port Hills will be addressed at a later date.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says he’s sorry he offended frustrated residents in damaged Christchurch homes with his comments reported in The Press.

“I empathise and sympathise with those people, but I’m also extremely angry at the way some people are characterising the Government as not caring or doing nothing for residents on Technical Category 3 (TC3) land, when we and many others are doing a great deal.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has welcomed the news that Westpac and Lumley Insurance have teamed up to write new construction and full replacement home and contents cover in greater Christchurch.

“Being able to get new cover will help the rebuild gain momentum, and I hope today’s announcement spurs other insurers to further unlock the market,” Mr Brownlee says.