New Christchurch City Council chief executive Bede Carran says ratepayers are right to demand answers about council spending, with affordability and efficiency among his priorities as he takes over the organisation.

In an interview with Chris Lynch Media, Carran said the council was entering a period of significant change as the Government pushed ahead with reforms affecting local government.

“The city’s thriving, and I think the Government’s bringing a lot of change already, and we’ve seen some of that through the water reforms, but there’s more proposed in terms of the resource management reform, the rate capping, and so on.”

Carran said his focus would be ensuring council services continued to be delivered to a high standard while keeping costs affordable. “There is a lot of change, but it’s an exciting time, both for the sector and for the city, and that brings challenges, and I look forward to those challenges.”

He said leading the council during that period was a “rare privilege”. Asked where the council could genuinely cut costs without affecting essential services, Carran said ratepayers had every right to keep questioning how their money was being spent.

“It’s a fair question that ratepayers should and will continue to ask: where are we making the savings? How are we delivering affordability? We should welcome and be open to that question because it’s other people’s money. It’s not ours. We spend it on behalf of others.”

Carran said the council’s long term planning process would provide an opportunity to examine priorities, spending and the way services were delivered.

He said council staff were working with the mayor and councillors on the long term plan, which would eventually go before the public for consultation.

“Through that process we identify how we can do things better, more effectively, and more efficiently.”

Carran has also promised greater efficiency and transparency at the council. He said that meant keeping council business open to public scrutiny, making council teams accessible to residents and ensuring spending delivered tangible benefits.

“The other part of it is us being really careful with the ratepayer dollar and us really focusing on those services because, again, there’s a lot of services we deliver that the ratepayers use every day.”

Asked directly whether Christchurch City Council had too many staff, managers or consultants, Carran did not identify any areas where numbers should immediately be reduced. Instead, he said staffing needed to be considered alongside the services the council was expected to provide to a city of more than 400,000 people.

“The long term plan is where we work out what are the services and activities we deliver, the levels and the performance measures.” He said that process would help determine whether the council had “the right roles in the right places” and where work could be carried out more effectively and efficiently.

Carran said he wanted ratepayers to ultimately judge his tenure on the quality and affordability of council services and the organisation’s ability to navigate major Government reforms.

“I want us to deliver our services really well and really effectively and efficiently.” He said he also wanted the council to provide stability during a period of major change.

“I think it’s that we can say I’ve led the council and the community, it’s been a steady hand, and we’ve kept those services and activities being delivered really, really well.”