Paul Spoonley: Massey University Sociologist on Selwyn's lack of key services as it struggles with population growth

Key services are lagging behind in Canterbury's Selwyn district as it tries to cope with exponential population growth. 

Stats NZ data shows it remains the fastest growing district in the country, with 3200 new arrivals in the year to June. 

Rolleston and Lincoln experienced the biggest jumps, at 9.6% and 8.1% respectively. 

Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley told Mike Hosking Selwyn falls behind when it comes to infrastructure. 

For example, he says that of the 20-odd primary schools with more than 700 students, five of them are in Selwyn.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Dart around our population and where it resides Selwyn
as in christ which is so hot right now, fastest
growing area of the country. Around thirty two hundred people
arrived in the year to June. It's a three point
nine percent increase. In the next decade that population could
in fact get close to the size of Dunedin Massa
University sociologist Paul Spinley back with us. Paul, very good
morning to you, Good morning, make How does this growth

(00:20):
when you look at any given region when you get
stats like this is growth by osmosis or is it
word in mouth or is it a marketing campaign or
what is it?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No, it's none of those things. Really, It's about where
there is a growing economy and a growing desire to
live in that place. So Queenstown Lakes is one of
the top growing areas in New Zealand. And that's a
mixture of things tourism, hospitality and of course desirability, so
a lot of people. It has a very high level

(00:52):
of second home ownership down there. People have a second
home in Queenstown, so it's a mix of those things.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Although it wouldn't be the same case, would it, because
you would move to sell one. I mean, there's something
about the Canterbury region, isn't there People speak well of
christ Church and Canterbury. There's something going on there.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yes there is. But the major thing that's growing both
Selwyn and Wei MAKERI is the displacement that resulted as
it was a result of the earthquake. So what we
see is christ Church is growing back slowly, but the
adjacent adjacent here is such as Selwyn, are really being
a beneficiary of that. So five point one percent growth

(01:30):
per years just extraordinary, and of course it develops its
own momentum. It's sort of it's got the businesses, it's
got the growth going on in terms of housing, and
it does fall behind in terms of services infrastructure. An
interesting stat for you, Mike is that of the twenty
odd schools primary schools that have got more than seven

(01:53):
hundred students, five of them are in so on wow.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
So what do you do? Is there a formula for
any local authority? You go, okay, so we've got some
more people coming here. We don't know how many more,
whether the growth continues, but at some point we need
to pull the trigger on a new library and new bridge,
some new footpath and some pipes.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Now and that's exactly the problem that Selwyn is now
facing on all of those things that's down in terms
of services and infrastructure. A third of all people in
Selwyn are registered to a GP practice outside Selm because
there's simply no capacity. And I think that's the issue
mark is that we don't do planning very well. You
notice that the locals say that the three year electoral

(02:31):
cycles just a nuisance in terms of planning for twenty
or thirty years. This year. The plans ten years ago
were that Selwyn would be around sixty seven thousand. It
is at eighty four thousand, so it's well out in
terms of planning and projections. And I really think this
country needs to think about our regional policies and why

(02:54):
we would keep people in some parts of the country
rather than see them leave and the other parts of
the country. Do we need to reduce the population growth?
Can I quickly add that sel One's growing at five
point one percent per year, pepper cru is growing at
five percent per year and that's from international migration. In

(03:15):
terms of Seln, it's from internal migration.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Interesting do you think we'll ever crack that particular nut,
because I mean We've been talking about it forever, going well,
you can go over there and you should move there
and we'll redistribute everyone nicely. It's never going to happen,
is it.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
No, it's not. And what we're forecasting is that within
a couple of decades three quarters of New Zealand's population
will live in the top half of the North Island
and forty percent will be in Auckland. Is that what
we want now?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's crazy, it's crazy. But it's not going to stop though,
is it. Paul, listen, I got to We'll get you
back on another time, talk more about appreciate it very much,
Paul Spoonley, who's the Massive University sociologist.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
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