Council starts consents year on a high

The Council’s consents team has started the new year on a high with 95 per cent of residential consents processed in January within the 20-day legal limit.

With 89 per cent of commercial consents also meeting the target, the average is 94 per cent across all consents, something that has Building Control and City Rebuild Director Peter Sparrow excited about the coming year.

“What is particularly pleasing is that the vast majority of those consents have been processed in fewer than 15 days.

“Last year we coped with a lot of change and significant increases in volumes. This was capped off in December when International Accreditation New Zealand confirmed the Council’s standing as an accredited Building Consent Authority.

“It is refreshing to see how everyone has come back and got straight back into it. Of the 629 consents processed last month, 94 per cent were done in less than 20 days. This compares with 49 per cent of the 630 consents granted in January 2014 and is our best result since the earthquakes.”

The improved consent processing is appreciated by the industry, says Canterbury Registered Master Builders President Alastair Miles.

“We received feedback from our members that they have seen an improvement in the time taken by the Council to issue residential building consents. This is a positive result for the industry and gives our members and their clients some real certainty on consent times and will enable them to better plan resources and commencement dates on site.”

Mr Sparrow says forecasting shows volumes are likely to ease back from last year’s figures.

“Rebuild momentum is expected to remain steady this year, with our analysis predicting we will grant 7,143 consents this year. This is compared with 10,229 consents in 2014 (forecast 8,140) with a combined building value of $3.07 billion. By comparison in 2012 we granted 6891 consents valued at $1.1 billion and 2013 there were 7919 consents with a value of $1.7 billion.

“There is still an element of volatility and we continue to work closely with the industry to get a feel for how volumes may change.”

Efficiency improvements are providing an opportunity to target some of a backlog of applications that have been in the system for a while, Mr Sparrow says.

“This is unlikely to have an impact on our timeframes for processing new consents. We will be targeting code compliance certificates where we have been waiting on information from people.

“We need to clear this backlog and as soon as we do, we can concentrate on maintaining and improving standards for new consents as they come in.”

For more information, refer to the agenda for today's Regulation and Consents Committee.

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