LBPs want access to NZ Standards

Almost half of the Licensed Building Practitioners who responded to MBIE’s annual survey want the scheme to become more qualification-based

More than 1,000 LBPs responded to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s annual survey to find out what LBPs think of the scheme.

The survey showed that more than 80% of respondents want access to national standards included in their licence fee. Just over 5% disagreed, with the remainder either unsure or of no opinion.

Given the overwhelming response, MBIE is working towards finding a solution, which would bring builders better in line with other occupation licensing groups with access to standards.

MBIE – service could be better

Asked how satisfied they were with the overall quality of service delivery, more than 65% of respondents said they were satisfied and over 25% said they were neutral on the issue. Despite very few responding they were unsatisfied, MBIE said that more work is required to increase the number of positive responses.

Asked whether the scheme should move towards a qualification-based programme in the near future, nearly 50% said ‘yes’. Around 30% were ‘not sure’, with nearly 20% responding ‘no’.

The ministry noted that work is already under way to consider how the scheme might move to a fully qualification-based entry in the future.

Online tool on its way

An online Record of Work and Certificate of Work database is being developed by MBIE as part of the skills maintenance project, and is expected to be released next year.

It will enable LBPs to complete the forms in a portal and remove the need for standard details to be re-entered each time a form is completed.

Close to 70% of respondents said they would use such a tool.

Better awareness needed

Just over half of the respondents said they felt clients were either ‘moderately aware’ or ‘very aware’ of the LBP scheme. That was only slightly more than those who said customers were only ‘slightly aware’ or ‘not at all aware’ of the scheme.

While MBIE acknowledged more work was required to build the brand among customers, it reported that awareness has increased every year since the scheme’s introduction.