Will the new building consent exemptions save the building industry?

You may recall that late in May 2020 the Government announced some sweeping changes to the building consent regime that were intended to increase the volume of low-risk building work and lessen Councils’ workloads.

This was promoted as one of the ways to kick-start the economy in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea was that if you remove the expense and delay associated with applying for a building consent for low-risk projects, then a lot more people will undertake that work, builders will be busier than they would have been, and more money will start flowing through the economy.

Are these changes a big deal?

Whether these exemptions do result in an increase in building activity remains to be seen. At the time I wrote this, they were due to come into force in two stages – some of them at the end of August 2020, and the rest – those that rely on the involvement of licensed building practitioners – later in the year when other changes are made to the Building Act.

"You could be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of hallelujah moment, as though building activity was being freed up for the first time in history."