The Government announced on 29 Sept 2024 that it has agreed to investigate significant reform of the building consent system in Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim is to drive consistency, certainty and efficiency, making it clearer and easier for Kiwis to build.

The Government is proposing reform to:

• the ways in which users of the building consent system are protected against defective building work (currently achieved through requiring work to be inspected and consented by a Building Consent Authority (BCA));
• how builders (including offsite manufacturers) interface with the consenting system; and
• address concerns about different practices and approaches to the building code by the 67 BCAs across the country.

The Government has signalled it will begin discussions focused around three options to replace the current BCA system, with the aim of incentivising “innovative solutions that improve productivity and enable building at scale”. The Government hopes to create a “more consistent and streamlined model” with less cost and delay. No changes to building code standards are proposed.

The options outlined by the Minister are:

1. Voluntary consolidation: allowing councils to group together to provide building control and consent functions. Some councils have already expressed interest in doing so, and some do to a degree, but barriers exist and legislation as it stands prevents councils from fully integrating.
2. Regional building consent authorities: this option would see a small number of large regional BCAs replacing the 67 current authorities. This would facilitate consistent decision-making and entities large enough to drive “economies of scale”.
3. Single point of contact: as the name suggests, a single point of contact would be established to receive consent applications. Inspections may be contracted out to existing BCAs or private consenting providers with the aim of creating competition and specialisation.

Alongside these proposed building system reforms, the Government has signalled it will review liability settings. As it stands, councils are often ultimately held responsible for defective works, particularly where the builder or designer who completed the work is insolvent or cannot be found. In the Minister’s view, this “creates a highly conservative and risk averse approach” from BCAs. A new system will also take into account the risk councils assume and where liability might ultimately lie (including consideration of the role of insurance).

These reforms might be seen as the next step in the Coalition Government’s push for councils to deliver the basics more efficiently. How councils will respond to the current proposals remains to be seen, but there is a developing tension between the Coalition Government’s insistence on the importance of “localism” (as seen in the Local Water Done Well water reforms) and other initiatives (eg the review of Māori wards), which appear to be reducing the powers of local government.

The Government will be seeking feedback from the property and construction sector, local government and the public – and intends to “welcome suggestions for additional or hybrid options to deliver the desired outcomes”. In the interim, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will prepare further advice for the Minister with the aim of conducting consultation in the first half of 2025.

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Increasing the use of remote inspections in the building consent process

The Government is committed to removing regulatory barriers and making it faster, cheaper, and easier for Kiwi families to build the healthy, safe and durable homes they want.

Remote inspections are already being used by some Building Consent Authorities; however, uptake is low and practices vary across the country.

Conducting inspections remotely may reduce delays associated with on-site inspections, lower costs, and lift efficiency by:

• eliminating the need to travel to site, allowing inspectors to conduct more inspections per day
• increasing flexibility in the workday of inspectors and building professionals
• enabling inspectors to carry out inspections in other regions.

MBIE is seeking feedback on options which include:

• requiring building consent authorities to use remote inspections as the default approach
• requiring building consent authorities to have the systems and capability to conduct remote inspections
• non-regulatory initiatives to lift inspection productivity
• creating a new offence to deter deceptive behaviour during a remote inspection and give building consent authorities more confidence to inspect remotely.