While New Zealand needs an enduring planning and environmental framework to provide certainty to businesses and local government to invest in projects, and to enable our limited resources to be used on implementation and delivering outcomes for our communities, effective engagement will be key to meeting the compressed timetable and achieve the Government’s goal of creating “an enduring system by getting the fundamentals right”.
High-level goals for the new system
The Minister said the three high-level goals for the new system are:
- Unlocking development capacity for housing.
- Enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure.
- Enabling primary sector growth and development.
The Minister also noted that these objectives need to be achieved, whilst also safeguarding the environment, human health and upholding Treaty Settlements.
Core design features of the new system
Cabinet has agreed on ten core design features for the new resource management system. The new system will:
- Narrow the scope of the resource management system to focus on managing actual effects on the environment. The Minister said this will mean fewer consents and the scope of consents will be carefully limited.
- Establish two Acts with clear and distinct purposes – one to manage environmental effects arising from activities, and another to enable urban development and infrastructure. The Minister said the current system focusing on integrated management had failed. No details have yet been provided as to how these two Acts will interact with each other, or how any inconsistencies will be resolved.
- Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed.
- Provide for greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and simplify council plans. This would mean that an activity which complies with the standards cannot be subject to a consent requirement. The Minister said the new national direction being developed by the Government in Phase 2 of the RMA reform (as discussed in our previous article here) will be transitioned across into the new system, which will be more enabling of development.
- Shift the focus away from consenting before activities can get underway, and towards compliance, monitoring and enforcement of activities’ compliance with national standards.
- Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure.
- Realise efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils. No details have yet been provided as to how the plan will be administered between councils and who will be responsible for enforcement.
- Provide for a rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with the potential for a new Planning Tribunal (or equivalent).
- Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations.
- Provide faster and cheaper processes with less reliance on litigation, contained within shorter and simpler legislation that is more accessible.
Expert Advisory Group
The Government has appointed an expert advisory group to provide advice on a new planning and environmental system based on the ideas announced today. That group comprises Janette Campbell (Chair), Rukumoana Schaafhausen, Kevin Counsell, Gillian Crowcroft, Christine Jones, Mark Chrisp, and Paul Melville.
The expert advisory group is required to report back to the Government by the end of 2024. Public consultation is largely to occur via the Select Committee process.
If you have any questions about the matters raised in this article, please get in touch with the contacts listed or your usual Bell Gully adviser.