Mixed response to BCA consent reports

Builders and Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) are split on their support for new building consent and code compliance certificate (CCC) reporting responsibilities  

In March 2024, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk announced that BCAs will be required to submit data every quarter on the length of time taken to respond to a consent or CCC applications to the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). 

Applications for consents and CCCs must be completed by BCAs within 20 working days.  

“Starting in April, BCAs will be required to submit timeframes for building consent and CCC applications, with this data being published on MBIE’s website every quarter,” said Penk. 

A joined-up approach

The publication of data is designed to drive innovation and reduce the time it takes new buildings to reach the CCC stage – an approach that Malcolm Fleming, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Certified Builders, thinks may prevent BCAs from engaging in “cynical” behaviour. 

“The NZCB supports this decision. It will create a picture of whether the historical complaint of BCAs being slow with building consent and CCC processing – and, in particular, engaging in the cynical behaviour of ‘stopping the clock’ on day 18 or 19 of the building consent application process – is still occurring. 

“I sense that it is no longer the issue it was, in part due to larger councils such as Auckland providing applicants with online tracking of building consent applications, and those larger councils having the ability to push overflow consent applications to other BCAs, who do have the capacity and vice versa. BCAs have created collegial networks that operate in this manner. 

“Regardless of whether building consent delays are a national problem, a regional problem, or no problem at all, capturing data to benchmark BCA performance on building consent and CCC is seen as a good initiative. It will provide good baseline data for when building activity recovers and the volume of building consent applications that BCAs need to deal with will increase markedly from current levels.” 

Part of a wider problem

Master Builders Chief Executive Ankit Sharma was similarly pleased with the new reporting requirements but added that challenges with consents won’t be fixed with one change. 

“Master Builders supports the Government’s measured approach to streamlining the consenting process, including the requirement that BCAs report on processing times. There are a range of measures that must be implemented to address consenting delays.  

“As of August last year, 66% of Master Builders members were experiencing consenting delays. Those who work in the sector are in agreement that the consenting system is not delivering what the country needs. Inconsistencies across BCAs are still a significant challenge.  

“We believe key themes coming through the consenting review – which talk about more joined-up BCA service delivery, consolidation, and self-certification pathways for proven operators – will contribute to better uniformity across the country.” 

Master Builders is pleased that the Government is consulting with the sector to reduce costs, improve productivity and deliver more affordable housing and infrastructure, added Sharma. 

BCA responses mixed

While the new reporting requirements are popular with those working in the construction industry, it hasn’t been met with universal support from BCAs. 

“This new government requirement continues the historic focus on councils’ statutory performance alone,” said Ian McCormick, General Manager Building Consents at Auckland Council.  

“It is important to note that building consent statutory performance figures, as requested by MBIE, provide only a partial view of consenting processing times. Statutory time is essentially an accurate count of the time an application is being worked on by council staff. The total processing time includes the time council staff spend waiting for information found to be missing from the application to be provided by the applicant or agent. 

“If the time taken for applicants to respond to [requests for information (RFIs) from] councils was also reported, therefore bringing the wider industry into focus, it would have the potential to really make a difference and enable an improvement in the quality and completeness of building consent applications submissions.” 

Wellington City Council (WCC) Chief Planning Officer Liam Hodgetts added that a one-size-fits-all approach risks ignoring some of New Zealand’s unique challenges. 

“The supply of this data won’t improve consenting timeframes on its own. It is one part of informing future decisions on the Government’s plans to improve the building consent system. 

“If this reporting can assist central government in highlighting the challenges BCAs face for approving more complex buildings, particularly in Wellington, due to its seismic risk and topographical challenges, then WCC welcomes that.” 

Christchurch Council was more enthusiastic about the new reporting responsibilities. 

“MBIE, as the central regulator, needs this type of information, so it can make more informed decisions on changes that may be needed, and/or guidance and assistance that would assist in the building consent process,” said Steffan Thomas, Head of Building Consenting. 

In response to Auckland Council’s concerns, MBIE’s Head of Building Systems Delivery and Assurance Simon Thomas told Under Construction: “Further data regarding RFIs and overall elapsed time is something that we are looking to collect and will be working with the BCAs and their software providers to enable this for future reports.” 

Impact on workload limited

Asked whether a responsibility to gather and report consent processing data would place more pressure on BCAs, Ian McCormick, Auckland Council’s General Manager Building Consents, told Under Construction that it would not, as that information was already gathered internally.  

WCC’s Hodgetts added: “The MBIE report includes new data sets that we have not previously reported on but is not overly onerous and we welcome government interest to better understand the BCA consenting environment.”