Minister welcomes big turnout for building summit

Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins has welcomed the large number of acceptances for tomorrow’s ‘leaky buildings’ meeting.

Mr Hawkins will open the meeting, which he convened after the release in mid-September of the Report of the Overview Group on the Weathertightness of Buildings, produced for the Building Industry Association.

The so-called ‘Building Industry Summit’ will be held at Auckland’s Sheraton Hotel from 8.30am.

Mr Hawkins said around 80 people representing a wide cross section of the building sector would attend the meeting.

Response forms attached to the invitation asking for suggestions on ways to improve the sector’s input into the industry had been well received. Those suggestions were being collated and would form part of the discussion at the meeting, Mr Hawkins said.

“What’s come through is a genuine concern about the situation from across all areas within the industry, coupled with genuine goodwill to play a part in finding solutions. From that point of view, we’re already ahead,” Mr Hawkins said.

“The industry knows it is in its own interest to find a way forward.”

The Summit’s agenda included consideration of how the building industry could enhance skill levels, knowledge and performance, as well ways to improve building methods and the performance of various materials.

Ways in which additional accountability and responsibility could be introduced within and between industry sectors, would also be examined.

Mr Hawkins said the meeting was not a forum where issues of liability or compensation would be discussed.

In the four weeks or so since the release of the report, the Government had moved quickly to find solutions for those facing leaky homes, and this meeting constituted part of that response, he said.

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