Hon Nick Smith
National Party Building and Construction Spokesman
27 July 2006
Bill tackles delays in building consents
National Building and Construction spokesman Nick Smith is delighted that his Building (Late Consent is a Free Consent)
Amendment Bill has been drawn from the Members’ Bill ballot.
“This bill tackles the problem faced by thousands of builders and homeowners of months of delay in getting building
consents.
“The law requires that building consents are processed within 20 working days but there are numerous examples of it
taking months longer than this. The result is land sitting vacant and builders being idle. The cost of delays just make
houses more expensive for families.
“The time constraints on building consent processing are meaningless when there is no penalty or consequence of it being
ignored. Citizens face penalties when they do not comply with statutory timeframes for things like filing tax returns,
and the same should apply to statutory bodies.
“This bill will focus the minds of those processing building consents to do so in a timely way. This will reduce the
bureaucratic frustrations of builders and homeowners and improve the productivity of the $10 billion-a-year building
industry,” says Dr Smith.
ENDS