Hamilton City Council
Te kaunihera o Kirikiriroa
From 12 June until 5 July, we're seeking feedback on the decision-making principles we'll use to assess various options for amalgamation with other councils. Read the information on this page and click the 'Have Your Say' button to let us know your thoughts.
Please note: This page was updated on 26 June 2026 to include three additional potential models that Council is exploring. These models are numbered 4-6 under the ‘What this means for Hamilton City Council’ section below.
A link to the agenda from the workshop has been added below, and a media release can be found here.
On 5 May 2026, central government announced a new ‘Head Start’ pathway for local government reform, giving councils until 9 August 2026 to come up with proposals to join up with neighbouring authorities.
The Head Start pathway outlines potential future changes to how councils are structured, in particular the shift toward larger unitary authorities. A unitary authority is a single council organisation that delivers the services of both city/district and regional councils. Examples of these are in place now in Auckland, Gisborne, Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman.
Councils can choose to progress a proposal through Head Start which will then be evaluated by central government. Any councils that decide not to take the Head Start pathway, or cannot agree on a new arrangement, will enter a compulsory amalgamation process after the 2028 local government elections (“Back Stop”).
Any two or more councils (except for Auckland) can submit a proposal if they represent a majority of the directly affected councils, or the majority of the population across directly affected areas.
All proposals must be to establish a new unitary authority.
Proposals will be evaluated across five criteria:
Any council that chooses not to submit a Head Start proposal, or has a proposal rejected by central government, will fall into the ‘Backstop’ process with limited ability to influence local government reform.
Read more information about Head Start from central government here.
On 28 May 2026, Elected Members decided Hamilton City Council would work towards submitting a Head Start proposal.
Council is initially exploring the following potential models for local government reform in Hamilton and the surrounding area:
1. a merger of Hamilton City Council and Waikato District Council based on the existing IAWAI (the new water company servicing both areas) partnership
2. a merger of Hamilton City Council, Waikato District Council, and Waipā District Council
3. a single council for the whole of the Waikato region (within the Waikato Regional Council boundary).
4. a local government region based on the Metro Spatial Plan area. A new entity would cover parts of the current Waikato District and Waipa District council boundaries, and include Cambridge, Te Awamutu, and Ngaaruawaahia.
5. a 'central Waikato' entity encompassing all Waikato councils except those considering options with neighbouring regions
6. a western Waikato entity including Hamilton, Waipā, Waikato, Waitomo and Ōtorohanga
Preliminary analysis of the six models above was discussed at a Council workshop on 24 June. You can view the agenda from the workshop here.
Other variations of these models may be explored as information about each one is developed and analysed.
Essentially this means Hamilton City Council (and other councils) may not exist when it comes time to vote in the 2028 local government elections.
At the same time, if there is a change of government later this year, the Head Start process could go nowhere, or there may be a new process for local government reform.
There are a lot of unknowns and uncertainty, however, Council will keep Hamiltonians informed at every milestone and of every decision along the way.
The timeframes set by central government for councils to submit a proposal are extremely tight, and there is a huge amount of work to do right up until the deadline. Central government has indicated that extensive community consultation will be undertaken at a future stage of the Head Start process – we will keep you updated on this.
From 12 June to 5 July 2026, we sought early feedback from the community to help ensure Hamilton’s interests are represented in our proposal. In addition to the five criteria central government will use to evaluate proposals (outlined above) we’ve developed 10 principles to assess the various scenarios we are looking at.
During the early consultation we asked for the community to rank the principles we’ll use to test the merit and suitability of the options for a future local government structure.
Address the challenges that come with working across boundaries
Growth-ready, rural-aware system
Better for ratepayers
Best long-term outcome
Effective decision-making
Strengthen our voice
More engagement with local democracy
Resilient region
Statutory and iwi alignment
Evidence-led
Cabinet approved Head Start
Head Start opens
Head Start proposal submitted
Central government has indicated this is when community consultation on the proposal would happen
Cabinet agrees proposals in principle
General Election
Final proposals submitted
Cabinet confirms proposals
Cabinet makes final policy decisions
Cabinet approved legislation
Legislation introduced
Legislation enacted
Proposal implementation begins
Nominations for local elections
Local elections
Hamilton City Council has been saying for a long time that we need solutions to the cross-boundary challenges we face, as more people want to live here and more housing development occurs.
Hamilton City Council, along with some neighbouring councils, tangata whenua, central government and Tamaki Makaurau partners (South Auckland iwi and Auckland Council), is involved in the Future Proof partnership. Future Proof was set up to consider how Hamilton and the surrounding area should develop into the future. The partners work together to consider the important issues that affect us now and over the next 30 years.
Local government reform presents an opportunity to address the challenges Future Proof has been working towards.
Read more about Future Proof here
It’s simply too early to say what the impact will be on rates, services, representation and everything else council is involved in. Central government is asking for high-level strategic outlines only at this stage, with detailed designs to follow if a proposal is endorsed.
It’s too early to say. Hamilton was one of the few councils in the Waikato to keep its Maaori Ward councillors through the binding poll in the last local government elections and we know those seats are in place until at least 2028.
Everything is business as usual for now. As decisions come up that may have a long-term impact, like our upcoming representation review, we’ll have to evaluate how we progress those in light of Head Start.
There may be multiple proposals from different groups of councils from the Waikato put forward, and that’s understandable. It will be up to central government to decide which one(s) to progress. There is a lot that Waikato councils agree on, and we have solid relationships with our neighbours through partnerships like Future Proof and the Waikato Mayoral Forum.
This is a big risk to the process, but it is out of our control.
Last updated 6 July 2026