National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central, Level 7
42-52 Wil is Street
Wel ington Central
Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
13 March 2026
Ref: 20439
Harwood Wilson
[FYI request #33419 email]
Tēnā koe Harwood
We refer to your request of 5 January 2026 to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting
information relating to how Fire and Emergency responds to community growth under the Official
Information Act 1982 (OIA). On 11 and 12 February 2026, we responded to the fol owing aspects
of your request:
1. Staff Numbers
2. Budget
4. Call Numbers
5. Response Targets
7c. Do FENZ have data on the levy received from various towns? if so, how much has been
received from the Rol eston Urban area?
We also notified you of an extension to respond to the remaining aspects of your request and our
response is below. Please note the questions are numbered as per your initial request.
2. Budget
a. The FENZ Budget has increased dramatically since NZFS, explain how the levy has
been spent with the best interests of the public, detail how the increased budget
has been spent in comparison to NZFS, what might be best is to provide a report
based pre 2017 and now with expenditure / department codes, actual meaningful
categories (i.e uniforms, branding, wages, catering), not corporate jargon.
Though a response to this aspect of your request was initial y provided on 11 February 2026 you
advised you were
‘not satisfied that the annual report demonstrates at all how funds are spent
with the "best interests of the public" at mind, you should able to indicate percentage of funds
spent over years with the transition in mind.’
We have reassessed the response we initially provided and note that your follow-up query focuses
on how funds are spent. Please find attached, as
Appendix One to this response, the movement of
actual costs for financial year 2016/17 in comparison to financial year 2024/25. This splits the costs
by major groupings (regions, and large directorates), and it is further broken down by corporate
support, frontline and frontline enabler role types. Definitions of these role types are as follows:
• Frontline - those who directly deliver our services to the public and industry.
• Frontline Enabler - those who directly support our frontline functions, without which they
cannot immediately provide such a service.
• Corporate Support - those who maintain our business operations, including governance,
that al ow the organisation to function in an efficient manner and prepare for the future.
3. Evaluation of resources in communities
•
Has FENZ in the past 10 years, done any evaluation of community growth, demand and
FENZ resources in the fol owing areas': Hibiscus Coast, Hamilton & Selwyn? if so please
provide it.
Hibiscus Coast
The Waitemata District recognises that areas such as Whangaparaoa and the Hibiscus Coast are
experiencing sustained population and development growth along with other areas within Tamaki
Makaurau.
Selwyn
Population growth analysis in the Selwyn District, and Rolleston in particular, was part of a business
case supporting the rebuild of Rol eston Fire Station in 2022. Please find attached, as
Appendix
Two to this response, references to the growth increase (
Table A), and historical incident data to
measure demand and location frequency (
Table B).
Hamilton
Population statistics were part of the Hamilton Network and Resourcing Plan developed in June
2023; however, this work was not official y endorsed by Fire and Emergency. We provide the
statistics of the report insofar as it relates to population growth in Hamilton City:
• Hamilton is the fourth most populous city in New Zealand, with an urban population of
179,900 (June 2022).
•
Stats NZ projects the Hamilton City population to be: high projection (266,300),
medium projection (236,000) and low projection (207,900) by 2048.
• At 2018 Census, Hamilton City had 55,068 occupied dwellings.
• The 2018 Census data shows the population of Hamilton City grew by 19,299 or 13.6%
between 2013 and 2018. This was significantly higher than the nation-wide growth rate
of 10.8% over the same period.
• According to the 2018 Census, 19.7% of the population is 65 years or older, higher than
the national average of 15.2%.
•
Ethnicity - 55.2% of the population is European, 20.6% Māori, 5.3% Pacific Island, 16%
Asian and 3% other
•
Approximately 50% of the growth wil be provided through infil or intensification of
existing areas.
• The population for Hamilton is greater than the NZ population increase on a consistent
basis. The chart below provides evidence of this.
Please find attached, as
Appendix Three to this response, a graph of the Hamilton population
growth percentage against national growth between 2011 and 2021.
6. Building Issues
•
Are there any current recorded issues with buildings not meeting their needs, having
faults, or other concerns at the fol owing locations? if so please explain the issues or
provide documents to explain AND when work is being done to resolve this:
•
Silverdale
•
Manly
•
Chartwel
•
Lincoln
•
Rol eston
On 30 January 2026 you clarified that you
‘require information on building faults, buildings not fit
for purpose and serious safety issues that effect fire fighters ability to do their job or, i.e. Air Con
doesn't work on level 2, Meeting Room is too smal for brigade, Water leakage or mold.’
You agreed to refine your request to formal reports relating to the fol owing topics:
• any currently unresolved, formal y notified building or regulatory non-compliance
issues
• any currently unresolved issues subject to enforcement action or statutory notices
• any currently unresolved health and safety risks recorded in official registers
Please find attached information identified relating for the fol owing fire stations:
• Silverdale – see
Appendix Four
• Manly – see
Appendix Five
• Chartwell – see
Appendix Six
• Lincoln – see
Appendix Seven
• Rolleston – see
Appendix Eight
While draft maintenance schedules are included in the appendices for context, they are indicative
only. In practice, our facilities management approach may differ to ensure assets are managed
effectively and in line with operational priorities and available resources.
Some information has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA, to protect the privacy of
natural persons. Also, some information that is embedded within our release to you is outside the
of scope of your request and does not relate to the requested information. Where this has
occurred, it has been label ed as out of scope.
•
7. General
7a. Has FENZ considered the volunteer reliance and workload on Silverdale, Manly,
Rol eston and Lincoln? AND are their any plans to further staff these locations with
career firefighters?
Fire and Emergency has commenced work nationally looking at operational capability planning but
this work is still in-progress. Therefore, we do not have a formal, standalone review specifically
focused on
volunteer reliance and workload for these four brigades. However, volunteer workload,
operational demand, and station sustainability are all considered as part of ongoing District-level
planning and, once launched, we anticipate wil feature in the Future Operational Capability (FOC)
workstreams.
For Rol eston and Lincoln, both brigades continue to manage their operational workload effectively
as volunteer brigades. District operational staff provide additional support through risk reduction,
administrative assistance, operational planning, and logistics to help manage growth pressures.
While Fire and Emergency has not developed plans at this stage to introduce career staffing at
these locations, work is underway in Canterbury assessing the future location and configuration of
Rolleston Station as part of wider service delivery planning. This work is still in early stages and
does not include decisions about career resourcing.
7b. Has FENZ considered improving resources to growth areas' such as Selwyn,
Hamilton and Hibiscus Coast? Rol eston resources have remained the same for
many many years, yet their population has exploded 10 fold in 20 years, what is
FENZ doing to accommodate that?
Hibiscus Coast
Additional operational and risk reduction support to the Silverdale brigade is being provided by
District staff to help manage administrative and operational pressures associated with growth.
Selwyn
The Canterbury District recognises that areas such as Selwyn are experiencing sustained
population and development growth along with other areas within Canterbury’s territorial
authorities (TA).
Regarding Rol eston and Lincoln, who are in the Selwyn TA, while the station configuration and
volunteer resourcing have remained largely unchanged for some time, the brigades have continued
to meet required service levels. Canterbury District with Fire and Emergency Property and Region
Planning and Intelligence have commenced work reviewing the Rol eston Station location and
future needs. Additional operational and risk reduction support to both brigades is being provided
by district staff to help manage administrative and operational pressures associated with growth.
This local work will feed into, and be aligned with, the national Operational Capability programme
once its tools and frameworks are fully implemented.
Hamilton
With support from the Ngā Tai ki te Puku Planning and Performance team, the Waikato District
Leadership team in collaboration with the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union local and
frontline leaders developed a Hamilton network resourcing plan to look at three problem
statements:
• Hamilton station is an earthquake prone building and needs repair/replacement by
2034
• Resourcing (people and assets) capacity and capability does not meet Hamilton City’s
current and future needs. The lack of capacity is impacting on our ability to meet Fire
and Emergency’s organisational and legislative expectations, deliver risk reduction
activities and is having a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of our people.
• Hamilton’s surrounding network of volunteer brigades is bustling and is not sustainable
to meet future needs.
This work will inform the Operational Capability programme.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of our decisions.
Information about how to make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
We trust that the information being provided in this response is of assistance. If you require
further information, please email [FENZ request email]
Please note that because of the identified public interest in the information that you have
requested, we intend to publish this response (with your personal details removed) on our
website.
Nāku noa, nā
Aidan Saunders
Manager, Information Requests
