Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon during a previous media stand-up in Upper Hutt. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“Major reform” could be coming for the way buildings are consented in New Zealand with the Government looking at options to completely replace the more than 60 consenting authorities dotted around the country.
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says the Government was considering three options for replacing the current Building Consent Authority (BCA), which included 67 authorities across the country. These options included:
- Voluntary consolidation – Allowing councils to group together to deliver building control functions. Penk said there were already a number of councils which were pooling some resources but barriers with regard to full integration existed, and this approach would focus on removing these barriers.
- Regional BCAs – Establishing a smaller number of relatively large regional BCAs to replace the current 67 district and city council BCAs. Penk said this approach would focus on improving consistency and forming entities with the critical mass.
- Single point of contact – Setting up a single point of contact for builders to submit plans to. Building inspection may be contracted out to existing BCAs or private consenting providers, creating competition and encouraging specialisation.
“There are currently 67 BCAs across the country, each with different practices and approaches. We have a single building code that is supposed to apply consistently to all building work nationally.
“However, there are many instances of builders submitting the exact same plans to different BCAs and finding considerable additional costs and delays result from differing interpretations of the building code.”
