Category: Latest News

Local lines company Unison Networks is partnering with the Faraday Museum of Technology this month to celebrate 100 years of powering communities. Founded on 19 June 1924 as the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board, Unison has grown from a small lines company in Hawke’s Bay to a global group of specialist electricity companies. To celebrate this milestone, Napier’s Faraday Museum...

Award winning New Zealand tech innovator, Fingermark, has secured a cornerstone investment from global water, hygiene and infection prevention leader, Ecolab. This investment includes a multimillion dollar capital injection that will support Fingermark’s rapidly rising global growth trajectory. Luke Irving, Founder and Chief Executive of Fingermark, hailed the deal as transformative. “This is a true collaboration that will help both...

Housing is one of the biggest discussion topics in Hawke’s Bay. Housing supply, urban intensification, expansion on to primary productive land, resource and building consent timelines and success, fast tracking government consents, 30 year land supply, houses vs building communities are usual parts of the conversation by planners, councils, developers, builders and government agencies. In 2019 the region was facing...

The loss of vital funding from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council will set Te Mata Park back by a decade and will fail to protect the region’s most popular recreational and tourism asset. The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Long-Term Plan proposal to pull its $120,000 a year Park maintenance funding will see Te Mata Park Trust launch a ‘Protect the...

Hawke’s Bay will be served up a food innovation hub in early 2024, with a tenant prospectus now released and hopes for a first tenant to be in by June. Foodeast-Haumako, was the brainchild of Hastings District Council before setting out to find funding partners in 2019 for the $18 million project. The Government’s Provincial Growth Fund $12m in 2019,...

Hawke’s Bay leaders are calling for more government funding to rebuild the region’s extensively damaged roads and bridges. As the powerhouse of its local economy, the region’s primary sector and associated supporting services rely heavily on a reliable and resilient roading network. Whilst Councils are grateful for the Government support received to date and as a result have made good...

Cabinet has agreed to engage on a proposal for a temporary change to legislation under the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Act 2023 (SWERLA), which would speed up the delivery of flood protection work across Hawke’s Bay. On the back of Cyclone Gabrielle, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has earmarked seven areas where new flood infrastructure would see category 2A and...