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BC Update: No. 77 - Six more councils registered as building consent authorities

18 January 2008: A further six territorial authorities have been registered by the Department of Building and Housing as building consent authorities (BCAs), having earlier been accredited as such by International Accreditation New Zealand.  

The six BCAs were presented with their certificates of registration by the Department’s Chief Executive, Katrina Bach at a function in Wellington. The photo shows, from left, Alison Geddes (North Shore City Council), Jamie Dale (Taupo District Council), Mike Avery (Stratford District Council), Merv Balloch (Waikato District Council), Ms Bach, Bob de Leur (Auckland City Council) and Ray Applegarth (Clutha District Council).

BCA Registration Group

They were the 7th to 13th BCAs to be registered. Papakura District Council has since been accredited as a BCA and further accreditations are imminent.

The Building Consent Authority Accreditation and Registration Scheme is among Building Act 2004 reforms aimed at ensuring buildings are built right first time. It focuses on strengthening the building process at the consent processing, inspection and approval stages – ie, making sure that territorial and regional authorities have the appropriate systems, processes, procedures, resources and capability to do the job properly.

All 85 councils must be accredited and registered as building consent authorities by 30 June 2008 or have transferred their building control functions to an accredited and registered building consent authority, which nine currently intend doing.

The benefits to territorial and regional authorities of accreditation and registration as building consent authorities will include:

  • More robust management systems and processes, with better quality control and risk management
  • Increased public/community confidence as a result of the council having independently proven, appropriate competency, quality-assured systems, processes, procedures and resources
  • Better customer service – ie, more prompt turnaround of consent applications, without jeopardising quality, because of operational improvements and efficiencies
  • More capability and capacity, from having more competent and better trained staff
  • Greater confidence among building control staff that they are doing things properly
  • Strengthened and more consistent decision-making, leading to better quality outcomes and better Building Code compliance.

The register of building consent authorities is available at www.dbh.govt.nz/bca-register-n-z