The New Zealand Earthquake Commission (EQC) has moved from a “worst first” strategy to inspecting properties street by street in Christchurch and has begun a campaign to get all contents claims paid by Christmas.

Newly appointed GM Customer Services Bruce Emson will focus on managing the commission’s commitment to pay contents claims and complete assessments by the end of the year.

Mr Emson was formerly CEO of NZ Bus, a subsidiary of infrastructure investment company Infratil NZ, and has worked for Shell on logistics programs in Budapest, Melbourne, London and Singapore.

He says the EQC has progressed from a “worst first” strategy of home inspection.

“We adopted a ‘worst first’ strategy to ensure those homes with the worst damage would be seen first,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “Houses with severe structural damage over the EQC cap of $NZ100,000 ($78,800) and those with major structural damage were seen on-target by mid-July,” he said.

About 80,000 homes remain in the minor damage category, and Mr Emson says a co-ordinated street-by-street strategy aims to inspect these properties in the quickest possible time.

He says the EQC wants people to make contents claims by October 24 so they can be paid by Christmas.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) has announced that the cordon which has kept the centre of Christchurch off limits since February will be halved by Christmas and be gone by April next year.

CERA CEO Roger Sutton says 584 buildings in the city’s CBD have been demolished. Nearly 1200 have been signed off as either requiring demolition or other work.

“The CBD is the largest worksite in New Zealand at the current time, and we are almost halfway through the number of buildings that need work,” he said.

“We have April 2012 as a target to reopen the CBD, although areas around some of the larger buildings will still be cordoned off while work on those buildings is completed.”

The Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission will present its interim report to the Governor-General tomorrow.

The royal commission has focused on the building collapses that caused many deaths, and its report will include interim recommendations to assist decision-making for rebuilding and repair work as part of the earthquake recovery effort.

The Government has not said when it will release the report.