As localism – the idea that local communities should have more control over decisions that affect them – gains political capital, questions naturally arise: What would localist policies look like? What do councils think about localism? What do they see as localism's largest challenges? 

A new survey of New Zealand's mayors, chairs, councillors, and council chief executives provides answers to these questions. The survey, covered in my report 'The Pulse of Local Government', is New Zealand's first public resource that catalogues council attitudes toward localism. 

The results are promising. Across the board, local government is supportive of localist policies. Councils see potential in localism for improved efficiency, accountability, innovation, and civic participation.  

While localism is not without critics, problems of wealth disparities, governance problems, and inter-council cooperation were largely seen as non-issues by respondents. 

The survey was also used to gauge council attitudes towards specific localist policy proposals. Examples include the city deals and GST sharing schemes that have recently captured headlines. 

Simply put, our vision for city deals is that councils examine which central government policies do not meet their local needs. They would then approach Wellington with a proposal for a regulatory carveout, a local approach to a national policy, or for devolution of service delivery. In return, Wellington would establish indicators to monitor the success of the devolved powers. 

GST sharing is another useful example. Again, the idea is simple: allow councils to retain a portion of the GST generated from new housing developments. Providing councils with funds directly tied to new builds encourages them to facilitate and accelerate housing development. 

Our survey results show that these policies are popular. City deals received 90% net support in our survey. GST sharing was supported by two-thirds of respondents as a means of offsetting infrastructure costs from new developments. 

Given this widespread support for localism, the thought naturally occurs: 'What's stopping New Zealand from being more localist?' 

The largest challenge councils themselves identified to a localist system was central government. Wellington was seen as the single largest challenge to localism. Nearly all (98%) respondents identified it as such.  

These attitudes are understandable. New Zealand's incredibly centralised government has a long record of imposing its mandates upon councils. However, they are not conducive toward realising a more localist New Zealand. 

Therefore, the next challenge for localist advocates is to rebalance the scales of decision-making power so we can reinvigorate our local communities. 

Max Salmon's research note, The Pulse of Local Government, was published on 23 August.