19 July 2013

Hutt City Council ‘consents’ to renewed accreditation

Have you been faced with building a new home or an extension? Needed an inspection on your building work or required a Certificate of Acceptance? This and almost everything that is built requires one common factor - a building consent.

Hutt City Council this week received formal notification that it had retained accreditation as a Building Consent Authority (BCA) and continues to comply with the building regulations, said International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ), the Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment accreditation body.

General Manager for Governance and Regulations Joycelyn Foo says, "it’s important for council to retain its accreditation so that home owners, builders and developers can put their mind at ease knowing that council can continue to process robust and reliable building consent applications."

IANZ together with council successfully cleared all corrective actions that were found with some processes and systems during the audit.

"At the end of the assessment IANZ was satisfied that we met the conditions of accreditation. No issues were found with the technical compliance of the building code," she said.

IANZ said the scope of the accreditation on which the council was audited covered assurance of quality, requirement for procedures, policies and systems, control, staff training and competencies, record keeping and filing, ensuring resources and leadership as prescribed in the building regulations.

"We did fall behind on some timeframes set by IANZ. This was worked through in dialogue with IANZ. We take our accreditation very seriously as this could affect our growth plans for Hutt City. It’s business as usual for the council."

Council has made it easier for people to lodge building and resource consents online, saving time and making it more convenient.

ENDS

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