The New Zealand School Property Agency (NZSPA) formally beginning operations today, with the new body to build, manage, and maintain school property under a board with a commercial focus, reporting to the Ministers of Education and Infrastructure.
Education Minister, Erica Stanford said the establishment of NZSPA was about improving the transparency and quality of service for schools.
“We need classrooms and learning environments that work for schools, students and communities,” she said.
“The Ministry of Education will remain responsible for education policy and network decisions, including where growth is required. This separation will allow the Ministry to focus on education outcomes, while the Board of NZSPA will be responsible for the school property portfolio.”
The move follows the Government’s 2024 Ministerial Inquiry, which flagged major concerns with the way school property services were being delivered, including poor value for money, poor service to schools, and limited transparency.
“When we came into Government, we inherited a school property system with around 350 projects that couldn’t be delivered within the funding available, and classrooms costing around $1.2 million each. It was a disaster,” Ms Stanford said.
“Across three Budgets we’ve put around $2.7 billion into school property, including around $1.25 billion for new schools, classrooms and growth and around $1.48 billion for maintaining and upgrading existing schools.
“That investment has fully funded nearly 1,600 additional classrooms and learning spaces, providing more than 23,000 additional student places. In 2024 alone, we delivered 583 classrooms, 31% more than in 2023.
Infrastructure Minister ,Chris Bishop said NZSPA will bring greater commercial discipline and a stronger long-term approach to one of the Government’s major infrastructure portfolios.
“The Crown agent model balances operational flexibility and transparency with Ministerial direction, while bringing commercial discipline through dedicated leadership and Board oversight,” Mr Bishop says.
“School property is significant public infrastructure, and it needs to be planned, funded and delivered with the same focus on value for money, cost control and certainty that we expect across the wider infrastructure system.
“The move towards offsite construction and repeatable designs shows what can be achieved when infrastructure is delivered in a more standardised and disciplined way. Those changes have helped bring the cost of most classrooms below $650,000, meaning we can make every dollar go further and deliver more for schools.
“The more than $330 million saved through that approach has been reinvested back into school property, helping fund more classrooms and improvements for schools around the country.”
NZSPA was established through the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Act and is governed by a Board comprising Hon Murray McCully (Chair), Sarah Petersen (Deputy Chair), Mark Binns, Rick Herd, Sue McCormack and Peter Alexander.
“This Board has the commercial acumen and customer focus needed to improve the way infrastructure projects are delivered in the education sector,” Ms Stanford says.
