Budget To Fund Building Act Review

Funding for a review of the Building Act, which controls the construction and health and safety aspects of buildings in New Zealand, will be provided in this year's Budget, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Jack Elder, announced today.

Mr Elder explained that the Act provides for national building standards to be set but does not specify how these should be met. This means builders and manufacturers have considerable scope to be innovative, giving building and home owners greater choice, improved products, and lower prices.

But there were some industry concerns that these opportunities for innovation were not in fact happening, partly due to the Act and partly due to its implementation.

Mr Elder said the review, for which the Budget will provide $113,000, was part of the Government's overall objective of ensuring that New Zealand has a strong and growing enterprise-based economy.

"The building and construction industry represents over $6 billion or about six percent of the total economy," he said. "It's essential therefore that the law regulating this industry works as well as possible. The Government wants to ensure that innovators are not straitjacketed by regulations and laws."

Mr Elder emphasised, however, that the review was about ensuring maximum benefits to the economy from the Building Act, rather than being a back-to-basics exercise.

"There is general consensus that the underlying principles of the current Building Act are sound and are a huge improvement on what existed previously," he said. "What we want to do is iron out some of the problems limiting the full effectiveness of the Act, in particular those that are holding back further innovation."

Mr Elder also emphasised that the review would be done in close consultation with the industry and local government, which is a key player in ensuring the safety and health aspects of buildings.

Mr Elder expected that the exercise would be completed by mid-2000, with resulting changes to the Building Act in place by the end of next year.

Mr Elder welcomed the review as an excellent opportunity to promote further innovation in the building and construction industry, which will ultimately benefit all building and home owners.