Auckland mayoral candidate Efeso Collins is calling for council support for a chain of co-working hubs across the city in a bid to address the changing ways people work.
The Manukau ward councillor made the announcement at GridMNK in Manukau on Friday and said he would like to see the council come to the table and fund more centres like it.
The hub is run by Ngahere Communities and was set up with Auckland Council support in 2019. It is home to a number of online retail start-ups and also provides support for other businesses based there.
Collins said the fact more people were now doing hybrid work, where they split their time between work and home, meant such centres were more important than ever.
“These facilities can enable small business owners, sole-operators and those who have the flexibility to work from home or out of the office to be able to work in a place closer to their home – reducing the need for a long commute and the expense of parking.”
Auckland Council last month voted to adopt its Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP) which sets out what the city will need to do to halve carbon emissions by 2030.
To achieve the target the amount of kilometres travelled by private motor vehicles will need to be halved, something Collins is aware of with his new proposal.
He said establishing more regional hubs like GridAKL and GridMNK would enable Aucklanders to live and work closer to home and decrease the need to make expensive cross-town trips.
Collins said the policy hadn’t been costed and it would need to be further investigated by council staff.
Dr Sander Zwanenburg is a lecturer at the University of Otago’s business school.
He said businesses had faced major changes to the way they worked over the last couple of years, as a result of the pandemic, and having more co-working hubs in a city like Auckland made perfect sense.
“We are yet to see the full implications of Covid-19 play out in terms of work, but I don’t think things will go back to normal, with people fully returning to the office,” Zwanenburg said.
“So I think there is going to be more flexibility in our workplaces in general.”
He said co-working hubs could play a key role in allowing people another option to work outside of the office, or home.
But fellow mayoral candidate and former Heart of the City CEO Viv Beck wasn’t impressed with Collins’ new proposal.
“GridAKL has cost council millions – what will this policy cost? As well as costing more money, on top of fares-free public transport, this policy will do little to reduce congestion and emissions,” Beck said.
“If we want to get serious about getting people out of their cars, then Mr Collins should adopt my policy to scrap light rail and invest in a region-wide rapid transit network.”
