There may be some merit to the Prime Minister's lambasting of city and regional councils

Speaking at Thursday's Local Government New Zealand conference on Wednesday, Chris Luxon told councils to tighten their belts and stop wasteful spending.

He says ratepayers don't expect their money to go to a laundry list of distractions and experiments that are plaguing council balance sheets.

But Herald political editor Claire Trevett says while councils are easy targets, he has a point.

She says there things that are quite obviously core spending like roads and pipes, and there also things that are quite clearly frivolous spending that most would consider nice to haves.