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October 29, 2024 3 mins

The Construction Minister says he is confident consenting reforms won't lead to a repeat of New Zealand's 'leaky homes' crisis. 

The Government is planning to give tradespeople working on basic housing projects the power to consent their own work. 

Businesses with a track record of mass house-building projects will be able to access a streamlined consent process. 

Minister Chris Penk says this avoids the false sense of security in the system. 

"We think, actually, it makes more sense to put the incentive with the building professional - or the whole company - to do the work and to be responsible for it, and their destiny's in their own hands. Ultimately, that'll be better for the consumer, of course."

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
The government is continuing it's crusade to speed up building
in this country, now announcing that it plans to let
some builders only trusted builders sign off on their own
building work, rather than forcing them to wait for a
council inspection. Chris pink is the Minister full Building and Construction.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
A Chris ca the Heather.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
How do builders become trusted?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, there's a number of different criteria you can use,
and we're interested in scale. We're interested in reputational skin
in the game, and we're so interested in being able
to do that in a way that represents skills and
in frankly attract record.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
So how many do you imagine would be trusted, would
be big enough to be trusted?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Oh well, we haven't put a list together because we're
interested in the criteria that people will feel comfortable with,
But you know, can imagine sort of ten to fifteen
maybe are the really big players as a starting position.
You know, these are ones that have got enough financial
strength that if something were to go wrong, they can
be responsible for the outcome on that. We're not talking
about your one man band, your one person band, excuse me,

(00:57):
and a ute to you. You're not going to see
again when they change the sign writing or the name
of their company.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, I love it. So basically, this is the good
thing about it is it takes the carrying the weight
of the risk if something goes wrong at the moment,
the council pays. But we're taking that away from the
council with these guys, and we're making the builders themselves
carry the.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Risk, right, Yeah, that's right. We think it's an exercise
and risk based consenting effectively, where the people doing the
worker are the ones who should be accountable, you know, financially,
and if you think about the pooral great payer at
the end of the chain, at the moment when things
go wrong, we think, actually it makes more sense to
put the incentive with the building professional or the whole

(01:33):
company to do the work and to be responsible for
it and their destinies in their own hands. And ultimately
that'll be better for the consumer. Of course, who's going
to pay for a product that doesn't have all the
inefficiencies associated with that risk averse system we've.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Got now, So obviously the problem will be paid for
by the insurance company. But what happens if the building company,
the trusted building company is under such a massive weight
of complaints it folds. Does insurance still pay?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, well, I mean would be a matter for between
the insurance company and the builder. But having said that,
you know, we'll be really interested to see that there's
something robust in that way, and also that there's financial
strength associated with the building company. And look, the other
way you can do this other than insurance is some
sort of assurance more generally, and so guarantees and bonds

(02:20):
already exist in the market if you think about registered
master builders and certified builders. So some of those market
based solutions are actually going to get the incentives right
in a way that we don't currently.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
All right, you're confident we're not going to have a
repeat of the old leaky buildings scandal.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, a lot, really confident, because the point is that
you actually avoid that sohole false sense of security. We've
got at the moment where she'll be right because councible
will sign it off and it ghostally at least it's
the case. Sometimes people do some pretty poor work get
away with it, and we don't crack down on those
cowboys at the moment, by the way, because I think, well,
the council will sign off if it's all good, and
if not then they'll just you know, we'll book another

(02:54):
inspectrum and do it again later. So actually we're going
to make people responsible, which is what they want to do,
because the good ones will survive and the bad ones
will be you know, hounded out of the world where
they currently inhabit.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Chris, thanks very much, really appreciate it. Chris Pink, Minister
for Building and Construction.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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