The road to the new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport
As of this week, the inaugural chief executive of the new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) – who will double as the Secretary for the Environment – has a countdown of barely eight weeks remaining before the new ‘mega-ministry’ opens its doors on 1 July.
It will bring together the former ministries of the Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Transport and the local government functions of the Department of Internal Affairs.
The appointee to the new role was announced by the Public Service Commission at the beginning of April, with the job going to Jeremy Lightfoot, who has clocked up a total of 16 years at the Department of Corrections, including the last six years as chief executive. The appointment is for five years from 27 April 2026.
Mr Lightfoot holds a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours from the University of Sussex gained in the early 90s. From 2003-2011 he worked at Parkwood Consultancy Services, a UK‑based infrastructure and project management firm. He moved directly from there into a role at Corrections as the Director for the Wiri Prison Project, which included responsibility for the design, development and procurement of New Zealand’s first PPP to combine design, build, financing and operation of a prison.
As set out in the position description for the MCERT chief executive, the Ministry is expected to take a long-term view across the environment, transport, infrastructure and investments, housing and urban development, and to be the point of contact for local government across all matters relating to land and resource use. Its core roles include:
Leading the resource management system, including delivering the Resource Management Reform.
Ensuring the quality and accessibility of evidence to support quality decision-making.
Delivering outcomes for environmental sustainability, healthy and safe people, inclusive transport, resilience and security to climate change and natural hazards, and unlocking economic benefits from infrastructure investments.
Providing high quality integrated advice on climate, built and natural environment, infrastructure and local government, and delivery of a regulatory programme that provides investment certainty.
Enabling efficient development to unlock housing supply, provide housing support to those who need it, and ensure transport and connectivity solutions for community and economic benefit.
Supporting the Crown in its relationship with Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi and delivering on Treaty of Waitangi settlement commitments.
Partnering with others, including Māori, local government, the private sector, social and environmental sectors, to plan and deliver local solutions.
Monitoring relevant Crown entities to ensure they are governed effectively and are accountable for delivery of services and responsibilities across climate change, environmental protection, social housing, water, and all modes of transport.
MCERT will be responsible for 41 Acts of Parliament, with an operating budget of $388 million, including time-limited funding, and a non-departmental appropriation of $22.7 billion. At the creation of the Ministry it will have approximately 1300 employees.
No 40th birthday for MfE
Concurrent with the job of establishing MCERT has been the progress of legislation to formally disestablish the Ministry for the Environment.
MfE, as it is often called, could not be simply rolled into MCERT by an Order in Council. This is because MfE is the only one of the affected agencies created by statute – namely the Environment Act 1986 which came into force on 1 January 1987 – and therefore required legislative amendments via the Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill before changing its structure .
For its select committee stage the bill went before the Environment Committee who have now recommended by majority that it proceed to be passed.
Some 588 public submissions were received, all but five of which were “overtly opposed to the bill”. The Committee noted that submitters raised concerns that MfE’s environmental functions could be “deprioritised if they became part of the portfolio of a larger ministry” and concerns about a lack of clarity on how priorities “would be protected in practice”.
The Committee’s response to this point, made public on 24 April, was to recommend the insertion of a new section in the bill requiring the Secretary for the Environment to report annually on the performance of their functions under the Environment Act via MCERT’s annual report.
The Committee’s report also offered responses to seven other areas of concern, listed as: Environmental advice and advocacy; Possible conflicts of interest; Provision of environmental advice; Capability and capacity to respond to environmental pressures; Stewardship, reputation, and values; Māori–Crown relationship; Process, timing, and funding.
The report contains differing views from the New Zealand Labour Party and Green Party. Labour drew attention to the submission made by Simon Upton as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment that the Ministry for the Environment should, in his view “be left out of this merger”. The Green Party’s opposition extended to a concern about “the failure of similar mergers undertaken overseas”.
At the time MCERT was announced Oliver Hartwich, executive director of the NZ Initiative think tank, queried whether the merger will work – comparing it to MBIE which he criticised as being “too big to function properly”. Speaking on Newstalk ZB he noted the ambitious timing MCERT will face in relation to demands around “massive (RMA) reforms” alongside the pressures of an election year.
Meanwhile Parliament’s Environment Committee will report on possible amendments to the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill - the replacement RMA legislation - some time before 26 June before it progresses further.
Added references:
Release of the background Cabinet paper and Cabinet Minute (in January 2026) – here - and an Official Information Act request seeking details about how international best practice cases informed the proposed new ministry. - here.
Local Government magazine, 16 December 2025: One Ministry to rule them all