Full description of idea:

There seems to be a general marketing perception that the Matamata Piako is a great place to retire, because of cheaper houses than Auckland and cheaper rates.

Stop promoting the district like this, and focus on promoting it as a family friendly district.

Focus on ensuring that working people and families can find rentals, and afford their own home.

To do this is simple - remove the attraction of cheap rates of the cheapest rates in Waikato, which will help de-weight the rates factor that some consider when choosing to retire here as much. (Let’s face it too, rates are cheap but the general services provided by MPDC are reflected by this)


To assist with being family friendly, you need to make it easier for working families to submit to council, and you need to consider the fact that a large percentage of the people who currently object to ideas such as play grounds are simply trying to save their retirement funds, and are not looking in the interests of Matamata Piako Inc, or the futures of the towns. To address this, I suggest looking at the way you interact with the community and consider a weighting factor on submissions based on the part of the community they represent.

How this idea will benefit the community:

More families will be able to afford to live in the area through renting and owning homes.

Industry will be able to grow, as they will be able to attract and retain workers.

Ideas such as having the pools open for working families in hours when they can go might also make it through council in the future

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