There are many tales of generosity beginning in emerge in Christchurch. Evan Coster from Rangiora was working in Harvey Norman when the earthquake struck on Tuesday. He doesn't know if he has a job to go back to and with time on his hands wanted to do something useful. He started visiting local businesses in Rangiora such as Warehouse, Countdown, New World and service stations for donations of cups, coffee, sugar and milk. Then he rallied friends and family together and started delivering refreshments to emergency workers in all of the cordons in the CBD.
Insurance company Tower says yesterday's earthquake in North Canterbury will cost it a maximum of just over seven million dollars.
The cost of building a home in New Zealand's main cities has risen by 20 per cent since the Canterbury earthquakes.
Treasury has revised its sums on what it thinks will be the full cost of the Canterbury earthquake - which is now estimated at four billion dollars.
How will the government pay its estimated $5 billion share of the rebuild of Christchurch?
The cost of insurance could rise by 20 per cent as a result of the Government bailout of AMI Insurance and the mounting cost of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Discusses the uneven economic cost of the Christchurch earthquake.
Some Canterbury homeowners are worried that missed earthquake damage to concrete slabs could result in another big bill for the taxpayer. This comes only weeks after EQC told Checkpoint that the cost of mis-scoped damage or defective repairs following the Canterbury earthquakes could cost up to $1 billion. This includes $450 million for botched repairs, including badly repaired rubble ring foundations, and $300 million for an ex gratia payment to about 1000 over-cap onsold homeowners. But some Canterbury homeowners who bought after the earthquakes - and did their due diligence - are only discovering damage to their concrete slab foundations now. Logan Church reports.
Political Editor Brent Edwards reports live from parliament on the implications of the rising costs of the Christchurch earthquake for the EQC and the Government's finances.
The company running the restoration of Christchurch's Anglican Cathedral is confident it will be able to raise the extra $51 million still needed to finish the job, and says potential large donors are already being approached here and overseas.
The building has sat derelict since the 2011 earthquake and now the cost to fix it has soared from an original estimate of $104 million to $154 million.
Some Cantabrians are finding the price hard to justify.
The director of the restoration project Keith Paterson speaks to Corin Dann.
The Canterbury earthquake has pushed up the cost to the government of borrowing on world markets.
The Government's books are continuing to deteriorate as the cost of the Christchurch earthquake is added to a rising operating deficit.
The Transport Agency says initial repairs to State Highways damaged in the Canterbury earthquake could cost up to six million dollars.
It could be up to 18 months before 660 Christchurch homeowners know who will pay for earthquake damage repairs with a $1 billion price tag. The bill to fix houses in Christchurch that weren't repaired properly the first time round, or have suffered more damage in aftershocks, is climbing - and the government can't say who's liable. The problem is the homes have new owners who can't claim on theri insurance because the damage pre-dates them owning the home. Earlier Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods told us the previous National government put no plan in place, and the current government is being left to pick up the pieces. Former Christchurch earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee disputes the issue.
Economics Correspondent Nigel Stirling talks about expectations from the Government's economic package to be announced this afternoon to help meet the cost of the Christchurch earthquake.
Insurance premiums look set to rise by up to a third and even more to meet the cost of the Christchurch earthquakes and other disasters overseas.
The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission will hear this week that the cost of upgrading the city's unreinforced masonry buildings is more than the buildings are worth.
Listed general insurance company Tower has reported a bigger first half loss on lingering Canterbury earthquake claims and a write down in its computer systrems.
The Finance Minister says the Government will cover the ten billion dollar cost of the Christchurch earthquake by borrowing more rather than cutting spending or putting up taxes.
Three years on from the earthquakes that crippled Christchurch's infrastructure, the city has yet to see costings and timeframes for the delivery of a revamped transport system for the central city.
The construction of the first bridge in Canterbury to be built to the new earthquake design codes is going to take nearly two years and cost over 30 million dollars.
The Canterbury earthquake could force up the cost of building in the region by five percent but the Reserve Bank says it'll ignore that kind of inflation unless it affects the whole country.
Nearly two years' after Christchurch's February earthquake and almost 6 months after the blueprint for the city centre was revealed, many questions remain about how much it will cost and who will pay for it.
Base isolation has generally been considered an expensive system used mainly in commercial buildings to make them more earthquake resilient.
Katy Gosset meets the University of Canterbury engineers who've developed a safe, low cost model that could work in our homes.
The Christchurch-based insurer, AMI, says it won't be until June next year before it knows the final cost of earthquake claims, though the company's confident it won't need to draw on the government's backstop support package.
Southern Response is back in court today - this time having a final go at arguing that a class action against it should not be an 'opt-out'.
Christchurch residents Brendan and Colleen Ross say the state insurer deliberately withheld the true cost of repairing their home which was damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes.
They are now among 3000 people represented in a class action led by Christchurch lawyer Grant Cameron.
In September last year the Court of Appeal decided the class action could proceed on an 'opt-out' basis - which means it would cover more people and potentially cost the state-owned insurer more money if it loses.
Southern Response is challenging that decision in the Supreme Court, a two day hearing wrapped up on Tuesday.
Checkpoint reporter Logan Church was there.
Construction delays and cost over-runs are prolonging the earthquake risks facing patients and staff at Christchurch hospital. Six major hospital buildings at the central city site have been listed as earthquake prone since May, but there is no safer space to shift patients into. Phil Pennington reports.
A new report says the financial cost of a major earthquake in Wellington would be much bigger than the Canterbury quakes. Opposition parties attack the asset sales plan after Bill English's "it's just a guess" comment and cuts to jobs, services, and profits, hard times at Qantas.
The former Earthquake Commission minister, Gerry Brownlee, is defending EQC over claims its assessors in Christchurch were not properly qualified. A growing number of homeowners in the city are discovering EQC assessors have completely missed quake damage including broken foundations costing hundreds of thousands to repair. That's been disastrous for people who've bought homes with hidden damage who are sometimes finding private insurers unwilling to cover the cost of putting right mistakes made by EQC. The company hired by EQC to carry out repairs was Fletcher Construction. Its chief executive at the time, Mark Binns, told Checkpoint that EQC probably hired unqualified people to assess quake damaged homes. Gerry Brownlee refused to be drawn on the comments from Mr Binns. But when asked by RNZ Christchurch reporter, Conan Young, if it was acceptable to have retired policemen, school principals and vacuum cleaner salesmen carrying out assessments for EQC, he admitted finding enough people to do the job was a challenge.
A legal settlement between the Earthquake Commission and a group of Canterbury homeowners over the standard of quake repairs, is being described as a milestone for house owners throughout the country. The Reserve Bank has left the cost of borrowing unchanged at a record low 2-point-25 percent, athough it is signalling further cuts remain on the cards.
