State house building authority begins speeding up consenting

The public housing building consent authority known as Consentium officially began issuing building consents in March

Public housing is in huge demand, with Government planning to build 2,000 state houses each year for the next four years. Combined with housing initiatives announced in 2018 and 2019 budgets, the Government is committed to delivering more than 18,000 residences by 2024.

Consentium, as the new building consent authority (BCA) is called, has been set up to provide building compliance services to Kāinga Ora’s Construction and Innovation division. It is accredited and registered for consent and inspection work on state housing up to four levels. This covers building consents for new and existing homes (retrofits), as well as any repairs and maintenance that require a building consent (Residential 1, 2 and 3 and Commercial 1 and 2).

Auckland is the primary location for all consenting, administration, and quality control, while inspection teams are located in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to provide national coverage.

Kāinga Ora Homes and Communities was formed in October 2019 by merging Housing New Zealand, HLC, and KiwiBuild, allowing Kāinga Ora access to development, consent, land acquisition and funding powers previously spread across multiple statutes and agencies.

Accredited as a BCA in November 2020 and registered in March 2021, Consentium become the first BCA which is not a territorial authority (council).

Consentium is ultimately about helping Kāinga Ora deliver more warm and dry state houses for New Zealanders at pace and scale, according to National Building Consent Authority Director Anna McCrossan.

“We are focussed on improving end-to-end building consenting processes, creating national efficiencies and enabling Kāinga Ora to reduce costs in external consenting and inspection fees,” McCrossan said, adding that early engagement with architects and build teams will help speed the delivery of new public housing and public housing consent.

As of 22 March, Consentium can process national building consents and provide inspections and Code Compliance Certification. This covers building consent applications for new and retrofit homes, as well as any repairs and maintenance that require a building consent.

Those needing building consent, certification and compliance can begin the process through Consentium’s website.

Huge housing demand drives additional building consent authority

Demand for public housing was stressed in a November 2020 briefing to the incoming Housing Minister, during which Kainga Ora noted that:

• A significant mismatch between supply and demand, with an oversupply of three -bedroom units and an under-supply of the types of public housing tenants need.
• Many state houses nearing the end of their economic and/or functional life (with 40% built before 1966).
• A need to replace or renew 60% of the public housing portfolio within the next 20 years.

Kainga Ora will use Consentium’s building consent assistance to support the $500m it is investing in retrofitting 1,500 homes in 30 towns across NZ in the next two years. This is on top of the Public Housing Plan 2021-2024, which aims to build an extra 6,000 ‘public housing places’ and 2,000 ‘transitional housing places’over the next four years. In addition to existing builds, this would total 18,000 new builds. Kainga Ora had 2,679 state houses under construction as of June 30 2020, and plans to invest $11.2 billion in its housing stock over the next four years.

It’s all accessible at Consentium.co.nz, which is the place for anyone working on public housing to:

• Apply for a building consent.
• Book an inspection.
• Apply for Code Compliance Certificate.
• Take care of Applicable fees and levies for building consent applications.

Photo caption: The Greys Avenue development in Auckland will include 200 state homes and 76 non-state homes