0 The good news is happening here too

We've just got back from a quick trip to the supermarket. But the front page of this morning's Wanganui Chronicle caught our eye so much that we actually bought a copy!

The banner headline that took our attention read like this; Jobs surge thanks to building boom. And the story that accompanied it reads like this:

Job listings in Wanganui are up more than 25 per cent, with growth in the building sector, agriculture, healthcare and transport leading the way.
The TradeMe employment survey for the past three months saw Wanganui vacancies jump 27 per cent to 223, compared with the same period last year. The survey said the trades and healthcare were driving a large part of the region's growth.
Graeme Musson, branch manager at Allied Workforce Labour in Wanganui, said the development of several large buildings and retail centres had helped fuel the jobs' boost.
"There's a lot of positivity in Wanganui at the moment. I've haven't seen this number of cranes along the skyline in a long time."
One building under construction is the Victoria retail centre, including Farmers, which will boast seven specialty shops in the front. A retail development in Bulls has seen a new BP service station open with a Four Square due soon.

"The money's always been there but the confidence has always lacked," Mr Musson said.
"These are buildings being built by owners who live out of town and are investing here."
While the developments ensured a higher number of construction jobs, the retail sector would also benefit from more opportunities once the centres were up and running, he said.

This is fantastic news for the city of Wanganui and for the wider region. The Farmers development between Victoria Avenue and St Hill Street will turn an area that has been a wasteland and an eyesore for several years into a vibrant shopping precinct.

Further up Victoria Avenue the AA has just moved in to brand new premises, and a block further up there's a major development being built for Briscoes and Rebel Sports. And we heard whispers yesterday of a significant development in one of Wanganui's largest export businesses which is also going to have positive spin-offs for the company's suppliers and contractors.

As we have mentioned before, friends own a business which supplies to the building trade. This year has been their busiest ever, by some margin. Residential construction is also booming, as well as the commercial side of the industry.

After a number of years of lagging behind our Manawatu and Taranaki neighbours, the Wanganui region and the city itself deserve good news. The best news they could get on September 20th is to have a National-led government returned to office, and Chester Borrows elected for a fourth term as MP for Whanganui.

0 Still more good news

Labour, the Greens and Winston First have tried to talk up a "housing crisis". Yes; house prices in Auckland have risen, and yes, there are issues of supply in both Auckland and Christchurch, although to be fair, Mother Nature cops much of the blame for the latter.

But a "crisis"? Probably not. Anyway, as tends to happen whenever the opposition parties declare anything to be a "crisis", the problem referred to takes care of itself. Manufacturing has been in positive territory for almost two years now, exports are at record levels, our terms of trade are at a level not seen since 1973, and now the building industry is going gangbusters; check this out:

Auckland and Christchurch's rapid house-building resurgence has surprised and delighted economists as it hit the highest level since 2002.
NZIER principal economist Shamubeel Eaqub said a strong recovery was coming through in the construction sector, in part a rebound from the pause at the end of 2013, mainly due to timing of some large government projects.
"The pace of new house building is picking up strongly, as well as a surge in alterations and additions, which covers quite a bit of the repairs in Canterbury," Eaqub said.
"Non-residential work picked up strong this quarter. The big drivers are the education, accommodation and commercial [sectors].
"Accommodation is mostly in Canterbury. Quite a bit of the work in both education and commercial sectors are likely to be driven by earthquake strengthening."

"Ah yes" you say. "It's all because of the Canterbury rebuild.". Well actually, not it's not; read on:

Regionally, good momentum was building up in Auckland and Canterbury but the recovery is also broadening across regions.

"The evidence to date is of a solid recovery, which is gaining in momentum," Eaqub said.

As we mentioned last week, we have a friend in Wanganui who operates a business supplying the building trade. Their business has been run of its feet all year as the local construction sector has ramped up. And people they talk to around the country report similar stories.

Even Statistics NZ is noticing the upturn:

Statistics New Zealand said residential building work grew a seasonally adjusted 15 per cent in the three months to March 31, the biggest quarterly increase since September 2002, accelerating from a 2.3 per cent rise in the December quarter. The value of residential building work grew 17 per cent to $2.36 billion in the period, its eighth quarterly gain.
The volume of non-residential work grew 17 per cent in the first three months of the year, from a fall of 2 per cent in the December quarter, and the value climbed 18 per cent to $1.4 billion.
The rise in building activity coincides with growing issuance of new consents with the country's two biggest cities, Auckland and Christchurch.
Local authorities issued residential building consents worth $2.29 billion and non-residential permits worth $1.19 billion in the March quarter.

It's especially pleasing to see Christchurch getting back on track with building consents after the Government appointed Doug Martin as Crown manager last year. 

The Christchurch City Council has reapplied for IANZ accreditation, and Nick Smith is not ruling out keeping Mr Martin in place until the Council is 100% compliant in meetings its consenting targets. But this is one bottleneck that has been sorted out.

Are there any more crises that the opposition parties want sorted?