Auckland Council’s Governing Body this week approved a council submission in response to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) discussion paper on proposed changes to building legislation advocating for further changes.
MBIE’s proposal signals the first major amendments to the Building Act since it came into effect in 2004 and reflect the significant change the industry has undergone over the past 15 years.
Mayor Phil Goff says the MBIE proposals are a good start. “Having good quality construction and a strong construction sector is vital for our city. We welcome the progress that’s been made with this proposal, but we don’t think it goes far enough or fast enough.
“These changes could take years to come into effect and that’s too slow for us. We’re in a construction boom and we need fit-for-purpose legislation now”.
Auckland Council supports much of MBIE’s proposal including lifting competency levels for building practitioners, increasing penalties for organisations and individuals that act inappropriately and introducing an insurance and guarantee product to protect homeowners.
Councillor Linda Cooper, Chair of the Regulatory Committee would like to the legislation to do more to move liability away from local authorities. “As a council we ultimately carry the liability when things go wrong and the private companies disappear. We’ve had to pay out $600 million to clean up mistakes the industry made with leaky homes. That’s a big burden on our ratepayers.
“When we’re looking at consents or signing off building work we have to be cautious because we carry the risk. Moving some of the risk away from councils means we could be less over-cautious in our processing and speed things up for our customers” she says.
Councillor Chris Darby, Chair of the Planning Committee believes more needs to be done at a national level to introduce universal design standards for residential buildings to meet accessibility needs.
“The current design of residential buildings disadvantages the one in ten Aucklanders that have a mobility impairment. “We are going to see more people with accessibility needs as our population ages and the living environments we’re creating today are not suitable. We’re only designing for a part of the population and discriminating against another.”
“We pushed for universal design provisions in the draft Unitary Plan and we lost them through the Independent Hearings Panel process. We believe it’s a national issue so we’re having very positive talks with Ministers and we’re pushing for a national directive.
Submissions to the Building System Legislative Review discussion paper close on 16 June 2019.
