A southern council has issued a stark warning about the cost of building consents around the country as it battles to hit its own targets with reduced staff.
By Matthew Rosenberg, Local Democracy Reporter
Invercargill City Council's manager compliance and enforcement Sam Patton revealed on Tuesday her team was down multiple personnel and relying on help from another team to hit its KPIs.
Patton said the number of vacancies would reach three this week, but it was “extremely difficult” to get applicants and fill positions to required standards.
Reasons included potential council amalgamation, a possible centralisation of Building Consent Authorities, and impending changes to building and planning legislation, she said.
“There is a lack of technical staff across our team to respond to business as usual queries and assisting with our leadership decisions."
Finance Minister said annual inflation would have been 2.9% if not for changes to petrol and diesel prices. (Source: 1News)
Meanwhile, council group manager consenting and environment Jonathan Shaw said there had been a rise in private Building Consent Authorities and the council no longer held a monopoly on building consents.
Building control officers were being lured away from councils by better pay or work conditions, he indicated.
“So what we’re actually seeing across the country is councils now having to rely on the contractors, and it will reach the tipping point very rapidly where contractors become the default," Shaw said.
“The unforeseen outcome of this will be that building consent costs will increase beyond what they are now, which will be problematic for the country.”
The process to become a building control officer required a qualification which took two years to complete, he said.
The party wants qualified engineers to be able to sign off certain building work without needing council inspection. (Source: 1News)
Council manager consenting and applications Gillian Cavanagh explained consenting processes were in for a shake-up under new legislation, with a possibility that up to 45% might not be needed.
As for property file requests, numbers had dropped by about 25% following the introduction of a May fee, but remained higher overall than two or three years ago, she said.
Discussion about the consenting issue took place as part of a workshop on the council’s long-term plan, where topics included social housing, public toilets and forestry.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
SHARE ME