An Inner-City that Works.

Tom Roud’s vision for central Christchurch and… the return of The Alliance?

“A city that works for working people.” 

A fantastically simple tagline but one that captures a detailed policy platform that offers more for the inner-city working class than any candidate the Christchurch Central ward has seen. 

But who would’ve guessed that this campaign would emerge from the relaunch of The Alliance? It certainly wasn’t on my bingo cards for the 2025 local elections. Sneakily running its first candidate in over a decade, the party is testing the waters of its electoral viability by vying for the hotly-contested Central Ward in the upcoming Christchurch City Council elections. Part nostalgia trip, part experiment—maybe part political resurrection. Can a party, once kingmaker, haul itself back into relevance on the shoulders of a strong local candidate?  

For most of our readership and those under the age of 30, The Alliance is probably little more than a distant extra-parliamentary urban legend, or something our parents vaguely remember voting for. But in the 1990s, Jim Anderton’s Alliance delivered immensely: the establishment of Kiwibank, returning ACC into the hands of the public, bringing us paid parental leave, among others. The party collapsed following the 2002 election, falling far short of the 5% threshold to enter parliament. In the years that followed, The Alliance slipped into the shadows. Though, writing in the May 2024 issue of the New Zealand Federation of Socialist Societies’ Commonweal, current party president Victor Billot, said during this period The Alliance, or what was left of it, was more ideologically cohesive than ever. It later deregistered with the Electoral Commission in 2015, but with no formal dissolution, the party’s leadership hung around, quietly, a dedicated group with a comprehensive set of values and policies. 

It’s now 2025, and enter: Tom Roud—library worker, union delegate, local musician, and a refreshing voice for Christchurch’s Central Ward running under the newly relaunched Alliance banner. He’s (notably) running against incumbent Labour-backed Jake McLellan, community favourite Hayley Guglietta, and, unfortunately, Raf Manji, who really can’t resist a bid for elected politics in Christchurch. The central ward ballot is certainly well-qualified and is set to be a battleground vote in deciding the direction of the new council.  

As campaigns ramped up and election day began to close in, we caught up with Roud to discuss his programme for Christchurch Central. For him, it all starts with representation.

“Seventy percent of Central Ward rents,” he says, “only thirty percent vote. That’s not a coincidence.” Roud is a staunch advocate for renter rights and for breaking down the structural barriers that keep tenants politically sidelined.

He argues that local democracy is skewed towards the owning class, with electoral laws entitling landlords to cast votes in wards where they own property, regardless of whether they live there. Renters, he argues, often remain disconnected from local politics, “you may not vote, but your landlord will.”

Roud supports Christchurch’s proposed shift to a ranked ballot under the single transferable vote system, which is already used in other councils around the country, as it would allow people to vote in line with their values without fear of ‘wasting’ their vote. By reducing strategic voting and minimising the effects of vote-splitting, he believes STV can broaden representation and give renters, workers, and under-represented groups a stronger voice in council decisions.

The inner-city housing stock, and how it’s being used, is also in his agenda. Roud suggests a ban, or at least regulation, on AirBnBs and short-term accommodation in the city centre. The “revolving door” of neighbours, he argues, is limiting the development of meaningful communities within the four avenues and is taking up precious housing stock. 

Wellington City Council, for example, is eyeing up the possibility of charging properties used as AirBnBs commercial, rather than residential, council rates. Bolstering rates returns as much as 3.7 times higher. Such regulation could, and should, disincentivise the establishment of AirBnBs, and those who choose to remain will contribute more to the provision of city services and infrastructure. Roud supports leveraging rates to “discourage commercial practices that contribute to the housing crisis”, which includes not only AirBnBs but also vacant dwellings and undeveloped plots, but policy should go further. 

On the subject of housing, Roud expressed the need to expand the eligibility criteria for social housing. Social housing in Christchurch, which he boasts as being some of the best in the country, should not be a final resort for the most desperate but also act as a step stool onto the property ladder for all working people, he argues. As well as housing, a working city needs effective and integrated transport. From reinstating the free shuttle service, to building-up public and active transport measures, to simply reimagining parking at Christchurch hospital, Roud has people, not private vehicles at the heart of his transport policies. 

Informed by his days a union delegate, there’s of course the classic items you’ll find on a socialist’s policy platform: advocating for a full employment city, expanding living wage accreditation (an area he will be well allied with prospective Heathcote councillor Nathaniel Herz Jardine), greater council transparency, and keeping public assets in the hands of Cantabrians. 

The other part of Roud’s life is music, which is why his platform includes genuine provisions to foster a healthy cultural and musical scene in Christchurch. With the proposed changes to inner-city noise limits (PC21), Roud suggests the establishment of a contestable sound-proofing fund music venues can apply for to keep the city fun while still liveable for all. For him, it’s not the big-ticket acts that sustain a city’s cultural identity, but the nightly small gigs that slowly build Christchurch’s reputation as a place worth performing in and worth visiting. Roud argues that even the larger players in New Zealand’s music industry have a stake in keeping the grassroots scene alive, since without healthy independent venues the entire ecosystem falters.

There’s a fascinating dynamic here between a candidate's genuine drive for their constituents and the necromantic experiment that is The Alliance’s revival. Roud has made it clear that if the party fails the party fails, but that doesn’t change what he stands for in Christchurch Central. Party politics but with a candidate who serves their constituents, not their establishment. It’s refreshing from a non-independent candidate. This, he argues, is where the power of grassroots campaigns lies. 

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