Local government regulatory activities have an important effect on local and regional economic growth and, ultimately, national economic growth and community wellbeing. This places a premium on local government organisations having high quality policy advice and decision-making processes in place. High quality policy advice, which supports good regulatory design and implementation and sound investment decisions, is critical to improving performance.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has been reviewing the quality of local government policy advice for the past four years and this paper looks at the progress being made in improving the quality of advice.

The authors are encouraged by the recent initiatives promoted by Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) to improve local government performance and suggest in regard to policy advice and suggest that improvements can happen relatively quickly with clear focus and resourcing.