From this week, Hutt City Council customers are now able to apply for a building consent through a new online portal.

Hutt City Council’s Director, Environment & Sustainability, Alison Geddes, says the new online building consent system includes a portal (Objective Build) for customers to apply for building consents, and a new system for Council staff to process applications (Objective GoGet).

"Together the new systems are designed to create consistency, transparency, and quality in building applications, and will make the building consent application process for our customers faster and more transparent," she says.

The change comes after Council acknowledged there are improvements needed in how it manages building consent applications.

"While there will be a transition period as both our team and customers familiarise themselves with the new systems, this is another positive step that will enable Lower Hutt to thrive," says Alison Geddes.

The new online portal is the first release of Objective Build, which aims to create a complete consenting system for New Zealand. The platform will connect seamlessly to backend council systems, allowing New Zealand to work across a single platform. Building and Construction industry professionals will have one account to handle all applications, instead of the multiple accounts for each council they currently interact with.

"We’re pleased to share that customers who attended our information sessions say that they’re positive about using Objective Build," says Alison Geddes.

The move to implement the new systems also created an opportunity for Hutt City Council to review its current processes.

A second project, managed separately but in parallel, was the building inspection checklist review. The purpose of this project was to align with best regulatory practice for undertaking building inspections. With the inspections checklists needing to be incorporated into Objective GoGet, it made sense to include the enhanced inspections checklists at the same time.

Industry have been informed of the transition to the new checklist. Details of the new inspections and inspection checklists can be viewed on the Hutt City Council website.

Further information on the transition to the new system can be found here - New system for 2023 | Hutt City Council

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