Upper North Island Strategic Alliance (UNISA)

In March 2017, UNISA released The Upper North Island Story which is about growth and change and how important the connections between the regions and cities of the Upper North Island are to the ongoing success of New Zealand.

It identifies the need for collaborative investment and planning to tackle increasing pressure on housing, infrastructure, natural resources, skilled labour and transport system.

It also outlines population and economic growth projections to 2033 and identifies key challenges and opportunities that Upper North Island communities will face as a result of projected changes. UNISA partners will is now working together to tackle shared challenges and maximise opportunities through collaborative investment, planning and advocacy work.

On 6 March 2012, Auckland Council’s Auckland Plan Committee (the Committee) made resolutions about the long-term role of Auckland ports within the UNI freight network and about long-term strategic choices for the Auckland waterfront.

The UNISA  Mayors and Chairs endorsed work to investigate current and future freight demand and supply and scenarios to meet that demand, in the context of ports and port-related infrastructure for the UNI.  This work took the form of a joint technical study, produced by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), and sponsored by UNISA.  

The primary objective of the study was to develop a credible and consistent understanding of the upper North Island’s freight and port supply chain system.  It is a technical, evidence based demand and supply study conducted by an independent supplier, which has had regard to existing relevant studies, information or research previously undertaken.

The purpose of the Upper North Island Freight Story is to take a partnership approach within an upper North Island ‘freight lens’ to determine issues or areas that are limiting our ability to ‘reduce the cost to do business in New Zealand’.

The partner organisations have worked together, with NZTA, KiwiRail and Auckland Transport, industry and freight operators to decide on the key critical issues and opportunities where the collective partner focus could help deliver freight efficiencies, and to create a shared evidence base that will enable better future decision making.

The Story comprises two key documents, below. You can also read the Story's highlights brochure.

The Freight Story identified approximately 13,000 hectares of industrial land being either currently available or planned for future provision in the Upper North Island until 2041. This report also identified that approximately 7000 hectares of this was currently being used for industrial purposes.

This snapshot of industrial land supply only paints part of the industrial land picture, as it does not provide context as to whether the amount of available or signalled industrial land is excessive, is in the ‘right place’, meets specific industry requirements, or addresses other factors deemed important for meeting industrial land demands now and into the foreseeable future.

The Freight Story identified that a further piece of work was required to better refine the understanding of industrial land supply and to help better understand industrial land demand at the Upper North Island (UNI) scale. UNISA Councils agreed to commission further work on industrial land demand, including a recommendation on methodology suitable for use by all councils in the Upper North Island.

UNISA commissioned Business and Economic Research Limited (BERL) to undertake this work, and the Industrial Land Demand Study provided a number of key findings applicable to the Upper North Island. You can read the report below.