Source: New Zealand Government
The Government’s overhaul of school property takes another significant step forward today, with the New Zealand School Property Agency (NZSPA) formally beginning operations, Education Minister Erica Stanford and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop say.
“The establishment of NZSPA is about improving the transparency and quality of service for schools. We need classrooms and learning environments that work for schools, students and communities,” Ms Stanford says.
“From today NZSPA will build, manage, and maintain school property under a board with a commercial focus, reporting to the Ministers of Education and Infrastructure.
“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.
“This 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.
“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 per cent more than in 2023.
“We’ve also increased maintenance funding by $880 million in just two Budgets. That’s more than double the increase over the previous six years combined.
“We’ve funded three new specialist schools, the first in nearly 50 years, and 142 specialist classrooms.
“We’ve also worked through the 352 projects reviewed for value for money and put in place a longer-term investment approach so there is a clearer, more deliverable pipeline for school property into the future.”
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says from today, 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.
“Good infrastructure delivery comes down to making sound investment decisions and having a clear pipeline of work that can be delivered. NZSPA gives that approach a permanent home.”
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.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/10/01/new-school-property-agency-begins-operations/