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Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Crown and the Christchurch City Council have marked a major milestone in the rebuild of greater Christchurch, with agreement reached on cost sharing arrangements for the anchor projects in

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says greater Christchurch’s 40,000th home has now been repaired – leaving EQC’s project managed home repair programme with around 40,000 homes to go.

“We established the managed home repair programme in October 2010 to coordinate the delivery of quality home repairs and support confidence in the region’s long term future,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee today announced three new appointments and two reappointments to the board of the Earthquake Commission (EQC).

Sir Maarten Wevers has been appointed as a board member, and will take up the role of chairman on 1 August 2013, when the current chairman, Michael Wintringham, retires.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says a group of companies and agencies involved in the recovery have combined to share knowledge and create a winter resilience campaign, ensuring all parties know what each is doing and promising to refer those who need help on to their partners as required.

In a first step, major construction companies have volunteered staff to respond to any emergency works created by this week’s expected snowstorm, working alongside Civil Defence and the Christchurch City Council.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson have reached agreement with Christchurch City Council for a team of technical experts from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to join the council’s consenting department and work with council officers to speed the flow of consent approvals.

“The team will have the authority to make changes as required,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the time has come for the Government to take urgent action to address the Christchurch City Council’s repeated inability to meet statutory timeframes for processing building consents.

This follows a letter dated 30 May from International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) to Christchurch City Council which gives the council till June 28 (16 days from today) to improve consenting processes or lose accreditation as a Building Consent Authority.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says an extension to the offer expiry date for Port Hills properties will bring their offer process in line with that of flat land owners.

The offer expiry date will now give Port Hills property owners until 31 January 2014 to accept their Crown offer. Work is continuing on the zoning review for the 130 Port Hills properties whose owners requested another look at their zoning, and an announcement on final zoning decisions is expected in the coming weeks.

Relocating government agencies back into the Christchurch CBD is a step closer says Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and State Services Minister Jonathan Coleman.

“The public sector will be locating facilities in the heart of the city as an integral part of delivering the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan,” Mr Brownlee says.

“Moving government agencies back into the CBD is part of the government’s commitment to the revitalisation of Christchurch.”

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has congratulated everyone involved in the development of Christchurch’s temporary AMI Stadium at Addington for winning the prestigious Project of the Year Award at The Stadium Business Awards 2013.

“To be awarded Project of the Year alongside the operators of famous facilities across the globe is huge recognition for all those who set out to, and achieved, construction of a stadium for Christchurch in under 100 days,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the three-week-old Residential Advisory Service is making strong progress, with 113 cases having been booked for appointments with independent advisers.

“Since its launch on May 16 the service has received 386 phone calls and emails, resulting in 113 initial appointments with property owners being made, 104 of which have already been held.

Environment Minister and Associate Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Amy Adams has today announced a further $500,000 of funding to safely dispose of hazardous household waste from residential red zone houses.

Today’s announcement takes total government funding for the programme to more than $1 million.

Ms Adams says the first stage of the project collected more hazardous waste than originally expected, so the Government has stepped up and increased funding for the initiative.

With winter upon us Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is reminding greater Christchurch residents that EQC can still authorise urgent repairs in certain circumstances.

“EQC can authorise urgent repairs if a house is unsafe, unsanitary or not sufficiently weatherproof, provided this arises from earthquake damage,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Canterbury Home Repair Programme is approaching the half way mark, with more than 38,000 of around 80,000 full residential repairs completed.

“With about 1800 repairs a month currently being completed, the Canterbury Home Repair Programme will hit the half-way mark within the next few weeks,” Mr Brownlee says.

With a significant work programme in the Port Hills area of Lucas Lane completed, residents of the eight affected properties will shortly be moving home.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the area, which was last to be zoned green, was in danger of inundation from an old quarry which had been damaged in the earthquakes.

It was agreed that removing the 40,000 cubic metres of loose fill from the quarry above Lucas Lane would ensure the homes were safe and able to be occupied and no longer at risk of being subject to a landslip.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says major inroads are being made into the purchase of central Christchurch land for new projects, with agreement reached for almost two thirds of the land area for priority projects, and the cost of purchases across all projects approaching a quarter of a billion dollars.

The properties are being purchased by the Crown to allow for construction of anchor projects, outlined in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan, which will revitalise the central city.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says this Friday will be a special one for Cantabrians as it marks a thousand days since the first violent earthquake that triggered so much upheaval for the region’s people.

“To mark the milestone I’d like to thank all those who have helped in whatever capacity, from voluntary to official, in responding to the earthquakes and helping shape the recovery that is so clearly underway,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the number of cases being assessed by the Residential Advisory Service a week after its launch is nearing 100.

“In the first week of operation the service has received 250 contacts, over half of which have been able to be handled at the call centre stage with referral to other agencies or directly to the callers’ bank or insurance company,” Mr Brownlee says.

A playground based on author Margaret Mahy’s work has taken out one of the top prizes in the BNZ Amazing Place playground design competition run by the Christchurch Central Development Unit, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced.

“I’m also pleased to announce the playground based on the inspiration of Christchurch school children will also bear Margaret Mahy’s name,” Mr Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has today taken Prime Minister John Key on a whistle-stop tour to check progress on three major construction sites in the Christchurch CBD.

“These three buildings will be worth about $100 million once completed and will employ a total of around 500 during the construction phase,” Mr Brownlee said.

“Today we saw these projects were progressing well, with two of them expected to be completed in the next six months and the other within the next 12 months.

Almost 50 appointments with independent advisors have been made for property owners facing rebuild and repair difficulties through the new Residential Advisory Service, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Launched last week the Residential Advisory Service is for property owners needing help through issues affecting their home repairs or rebuild, including insurance issues.

“Phone lines opened at 8am on Thursday and by the middle of today the service had received 101 calls,” Mr Brownlee says.

The Budget confirms a further $2.1 billion in funding for the Christchurch earthquake recovery, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Residential Advisory Service available from tomorrow to all property owners having difficulty with insurance and other repair or rebuilding challenges will play an important role in recovery.

“We know some people are struggling through complex issues and we believe the Residential Advisory Service is the best way to navigate their way through them and achieve positive resolution,” Mr Brownlee says.

Data for April has shown that in its first year of operation Southern Response, the government-owned company settling AMI policyholders’ Canterbury earthquake damage claims, has completed a third of the claims in its book.

“Had AMI collapsed it could have severely impacted on the lives of thousands of Canterbury families, leaving them with broken homes and uncertainty over getting them repaired or rebuilt,” Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee says.