16 December 2019

Judith Collins: National will replace the Resource Management Act

National will repeal and replace the Resource Management Act, and reform New Zealand’s planning rules if elected in 2020, Housing spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“The RMA has failed in its duty to protect the environment and allow our infrastructure to grow. There is now widespread support for reforming how we manage our resources.

“The dream of home ownership is drifting further away in this country as the sight of hammers on building sites is replaced with people filling out forms and paying consultants.

“A National-led Government will replace the RMA with transitional legislation as we work towards getting a new development-friendly law in place that is efficient and predictable.

“The building and construction sector once exemplified the best ‘can-do’ spirit of New Zealand, but this has been ground out of people by planning rules and their application.

“It’s near impossible to get a resource consent within the statutory deadline of 20 working days. The cost of consenting can quickly run into the tens of thousands with council processing fees on top of planning consultants charging hundreds of dollars per hour.

“The RMA has become a foil for anti-competitive behaviour, whether it’s a supermarket chain spending years preventing a competitor from setting up business or a property developer using their privileged position to prevent houses being built nearby.

“National has worked with interest groups that are looking at solutions to the RMA’s failures. The work of the Environmental Defence Society, EMA, Planning Council, Business New Zealand, Infrastructure New Zealand and others feature prominently in the alternatives we present in our Building NZ discussion document.

“National has the political will to take on RMA reform because we believe our complicated planning rules are largely to blame for the unaffordability of houses and urban land.”

Our Discussion Documents can be found HERE

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