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Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Wellington City Council has banned e-scooter company Beam from operating in the capital after breaking its fleet cap. Two weeks ago, following whistleblower allegations the council suspended Beam's license leading to its scooters being removed. Wellington City Council said a report from platform Ride Report showed Beam had operated on average an extra 100 e-scooters more than it was meant to between 26 July 2023 and 21 June 2024, which was a breach of its licence. Chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts said after considering information provided by Beam, Ride Report and the whistleblower the council concluded the license had been materially breached. "It is now clear to us that there have been breaches of Beam's licence to Trade in Public and the Operator Code...

Sophia Kwon, Nina Bailey and Billy Blamires are the co-founders of Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa. Photo: Ryan McKenna/Ryan Patrick Photography A new fashion week has risen from the ashes after New Zealand Fashion Week's cancelled plans early this year and an all-around bleak climate for retail continues. Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa, an event billed as "Tāmaki Makaurau's underground fashion week" is about to wrap its first multi day event on Friday. Dozens of designers, dancers, musicians and other artists showcased their work across the five day event in Auckland. The three organisers, all women under the age of 25, were frustrated by the lack of places to showcase New Zealand's creative scenes so they started their own event. It focuses on up-and-coming New Zealand designers and, unlike typical ...

Photo: 123RF An AI-based management tool for the creative sector has been singled out for investment by global pre-seed venture capital firm Techstars. Shutterspeed was the third New Zealand company to be backed by the US global startup network with a portfolio valued at US$116 billion. The software tracks time across different stages of production without manual input from users, automating the tracking administrative tasks. Co-founders Freddie Mckenzie and Henry Collinson said they designed Shutterspeed to help content creators and creative professionals focus on what they do best. "Production companies need to a better way to understand how time is spent, who is spending it on what, what resources are in use, and what client needs to be billed for it all, so we decided to build Shutte...

REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said the numbers suggested some market stability, with increased enquiries from buyers and sellers. Photo: REINZ The housing market remains subdued, with little change in prices and sales volumes. The seasonally adjusted REINZ House Price Index fell 0.4 percent in August over July, with national prices still marginally lower than a year ago and a median price of $765,000. REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said the numbers suggested some market stability, with increased enquiries from buyers and sellers. "This month, we saw further signs of a change in market sentiment, with local agents reporting increased confidence in vendors and purchasers, the return of investors, and increased activity, particularly at open homes over the last two weeks of August," she...

Trade Me Property said more than a third of New Zealanders would rather browse unaffordable property listings than watch rugby. Photo: 123RF About one in eight Kiwi adults would rather go online and look at houses they cannot afford than have sex, a new survey has found. Trade Me Property said more than a third would rather browse unaffordable property listings than watch rugby and more than half preferred it to looking for a partner on a dating site. With New Zealand having some of the least affordable housing in the developed world and [https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/07/22/home-ownership-rates-fall-below-60-report/ fewer people living in their own houses in almost a century, Trade Me's survey found more than half - 59 percent - of adults admitted scrolling through listings of homes they...

The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) rose 1.4 points in August to 45.8 points. Photo: 123RF Manufacturing sector activity has improved slightly, but remains deeply in contraction. The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) rose 1.4 points in August to 45.8 points, its 18th consecutive month in contraction. BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said the sector had been struggling but the PMI indicated what was happening in the real economy, despite recent improvements in confidence surveys, and conditions in the sector remained challenging. "Our economic forecasts remain for the manufacturing sector to turn when the broader economy turns." The PMI's five sub-indices were all in contraction, but showed signs of improvement notably in p...