Minister's foreword

The Government is focussed on increasing the supply of affordable homes for New Zealanders. To help achieve this, I am committed to improving efficiency and competition in the building regulatory system, reducing barriers and driving down costs.

Building inspections play an important role in checking that building work is carried out according to the consent and that New Zealand buildings are healthy, safe and durable. However, waiting for an on-site inspection can sometimes take too long, impacting on the time and cost to build.

Remote inspections provide an opportunity to reduce delays by eliminating the need for inspectors to travel and allowing more inspections to be carried out each day. They also increase flexibility in the workday of inspectors and building professionals and enable inspectors to carry out inspections in other regions, improving overall capacity and capability across the country.

Some building consent authorities are already using remote inspection approaches and are reaping the benefits of greater productivity and efficiency. While this is a good start, uptake is still fairly low, and practices are inconsistent across the country.

This discussion documents seeks feedback from stakeholders on a range of options to increase the uptake of remote inspections and lift efficiency in the inspection process, including an option to require that remote inspections be used as the default approach.

I am mindful that some people may be concerned that not all building work is suitable for remote inspections. To make sure we strike the right balance, it is important to get feedback from a wide range of submitters on the options in this paper.

As the Minister responsible for Building and Construction, I am pleased to present this discussion document for public consultation.

Hon Chris Penk
Minister for Building and Construction

< Use of information | Introduction >