Major RMA reforms announced

The PM has just announced the major points of the third stage of the Government’s RMA reforms. They are very significant, and are aimed to lowering housing costs and speeding up consenting. This means I am sure Labour and Greens will oppose them.

The major points are:

• halve from 20 to 10 workign days the time limit for consents for straightforward applications such as adding a deck or veranda
• require fixed-fee options for certain consents, so there is certainty of cost
• Give Councils the ability to waive resource consents for insignificant variations from planning rules such as a retaining wall being slightly over a permitted height
• Require Councils to provide a minimum of 10 years of urban land supply to cope with projected population growth
• Make subdivisions non-notified unless they are clearly not of the type anticipated by the relevant plan and zoning

These look really good to me, and should make a real difference to reducing both the cost and time of building or altering a house.