Calls for RMA to be made priority

There are calls for the new Environment Minister to get straight to work on proposed amendments to the Resource Management Act.

Monday, October 6th 2014, 12:00AM

by The Landlord

Nick Smith is taking over the portfolio.

Auckland property financier, James Kellow, of New Zealand Mortgages and Securities, says the Government has a great mandate to now deliver on what it promised during the campaign.

He says reforms to speed up the consenting process are long overdue and were stalled this year because of the election. “The minister must now prioritise these promised legislative changes.”

“Property developers just want to get cracking and build people houses. We have investors and buyers lining up but again and again unnecessary hold ups only cause frustration and end up costing the end purchaser more. Delays cost money and many in Wellington forget that those costs simply get passed on to consumers which does nothing for the country’s housing affordability,” said Kellow.

Kellow said he hoped the new minister would take some serious action on the current publicly notified provisions. He said, because anyone could submit on a publicly-notified consent, too often outside parties involved themselves and could drag the applicant through a lengthy Environment Court appeal.

“There’s got to be some limitations applied to the current status of public notification. At the moment there’s too many tails wagging the dog. I’m all for genuinely affected parties and communities being able to have their input but at the moment third parties can disproportionately wield too much power. Developers and investors want greater certainty from the outset. In fact as the old adage goes most would actually prefer a quick no to a long yes. The process needs to provide greater certainty, fairness and efficiency for all. At the moment it doesn’t. Things need to change if we’re going to build as many houses as we need to and overcome the commercial building shortage in the likes of central Auckland.”

Kellow said Auckland Council had done well improving its consent times and better managing its relationships with some of the city’s developers, but councils could only operate within the confines of the current law.

Kellow said there was some concern that last year’s Housing Accords and Special Housing Area Act has created two types of consenting classes in some of the bigger councils – with a lot of resource and effort going into the likes of Auckland’s Housing Project Office overseeing Auckland’s SHAs while other consents continued to experience delays and staff focus.

“That’s another reason why we need these further RMA reforms implemented to actually support the latest development upswing, create more jobs, shave off some costs to housing, and give greater certainty to everyone all while protecting the environment and affected parties’ rights. Who doesn’t want that?”

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