Aucklanders are more satisfied than ever with service from the council’s regulatory teams, with the significant majority of building and resource consent applications now processed within 20 days.
According to Regulatory Committee updates, 92 per cent of building consent applications receive responses within the statutory timeframe, up 15 per cent on last year. Aucklanders are happier about this too, with a 14 per cent jump in customer satisfaction over the past year.
Councillor Linda Cooper, Regulatory Committee Chair, says the results show the council is stepping up its service levels to meet the needs of Aucklanders.
“It’s been a tough year and even in these trying times I am delighted to see that customer satisfaction for consent processing is increasing.
“At a time when enabling economic development is in sharp focus we need to be doing everything we can to make it easier for Aucklanders to do business with the council and get on with projects – which is what these results show is happening.”
“The hardworking teams across our Regulatory Services are continuously improving the way they do things to ensure Auckland Council is providing a quality, accessible service and I congratulate the teams on another year of improvement,” says Councillor Cooper.
Director of Regulatory Services Craig Hobbs adds that while COVID-19 has slowed some aspects of service delivery the teams are still dealing with large volumes of applications for consents, reflecting the city’s continued growth trajectory.
“So far this year the council has processed around 35,00 consent applications, completed 186,776 building inspections and processed 16,341 code compliance certificates,” he says.
“We are seeing increasing numbers of applications for medium and high density developments and the complexity of these types of consents is an ongoing factor in our work. We’ve been trialing and introducing new processes, systems and communications that enable us to improve our customers experience during the consenting processes – this saves time and money for everyone and the results are showing.”
It’s not just service levels for consents that are improving, adds Mr Hobbs, “we are proud to see an increase in customer satisfaction which is a reflection of us processing building and resource consents as well as food and alcohol licenses faster.”
Improvements by numbers
Building and resource consents
- 92 per cent of building and 82 per cent of resource consent applications met statutory compliance timeframe of 20 days.
- 72 per cent customer satisfaction for building consent processing, up 14 per cent since July 2019.
- More than 35,000 building and resource consents applications lodged so far in 2020
Licensing Services
- 87 per cent of licensees satisfied with the food and hygiene lincesing service
- 79 per cent customer satisfaction for animal management, up 11 per cent since July 2019.
- 80 per cent customer satisfaction month on month for Environmental Health and Alcohol Licensing services
Dogs
- 1561 dogs registered in 2019/2020 financial year, bringing the total to 112,530 dogs in Auckland
- 5 per cent reduction in dog attacks over the past year.
- Reduction in all aggression-related incidents too, with 31 fewer attacks on people and 48 fewer attacks on other animals than the previous year.
Hospitality
- 24 hours – the fast-tracked time for processing some types of outdoor dining licences following the move to Alert Level 2. This year the council’s Street Trading team had a strong focus following lockdowns on making it easier for restaurants and cafes to use more space to serve food to dine-in customer. Read more about the council initiative to help businesses make better use of outdoor space in Level 2.
Read the full report to the Regulatory Committee.
