Main findings of the review

Criterion 11 - Human resources

Purpose

To assess the strength and depth of the Council's building control human resource capacity and how effectively it is being used.

Background

Increased building activity over the last few years has significantly increased the workload of building control staff. Territorial authorities and building consent authorities are able to address this by increasing staff levels and by using existing staff more effectively. Opportunities to increase staff levels are limited in the short term because the national supply of appropriately qualified and experienced new staff is limited.

Initial review

The initial review identified that the Council only had one building control officer and that much of the Council's consent processing work was being contracted out to an external contractor (another territorial authority). The Department considered that the Council did not have an appropriate number of technical staff to cope with existing work volumes and to ensure compliance with the Building Code was achieved for every building.

At the time of the review, the Council was actively looking for another building control officer. The Council had reported difficulties in attracting applicants due to the national shortage of competent building officials and the Council's remote location.

Recommendations to the Council	Action taken by the Council
Recruit additional technically competent and experienced staff to enable it to meet building control work volumes and legislative building control responsibilities.	The Council recruited three new technical staff.
Develop a long-term proactive strategic plan for the recruitment and retention of building control processing and inspection staff.	The Council had not implemented this recommendation.

Follow-up review

As discussed under criterion 1, the Council had recruited three new technical staff by the time of the follow-up review. The Council was still outsourcing the majority of its consent processing to Wanganui District Council. The follow-up review identified that the district was experiencing substantial growth and was faced with more growth in the future.

The Department emphasised that the Council is responsible for ensuring all building work within its jurisdiction fully complies with the building legislation, even when consent processing is undertaken by an external contractor. The Department expressed concern that compliance with the Building Code and Act was not consistently being achieved and made further recommendations to help the Council improve the standard of decision-making and quality of compliance outcomes.

Recommendations to the Council	Response from the Council
Review the type and quantity of processing work being outsourced and implement appropriate measures to ensure it is satisfied that full compliance with the Building Code has been assessed for each consent it issues.	No response provided.
Review the external provider it uses to undertake building control work to ensure all consent processing work consistently complies with all legislative obligations, and consider other possible providers if consistent compliance cannot be demonstrated.	No response provided.
Develop a long-term strategy for the recruitment and retention of building control staff, as recommended in the 2004 review report.	No response provided.

Conclusion

The Department's findings indicate that building work in the Ruapehu District does not always comply with the building legislation. If the Council continues to contract out parts of its building control operations to another provider (eg, consent processing), it must develop and implement the systems, processes and human resources to ensure it is satisfied that each consent it issues, and each building inspection it approves, fully complies with the law.

The Department notes that correct processing of building consent applications benefits the technical staff who undertake subsequent inspections of those buildings. Building compliance is a complex technical discipline and building control staff need sufficient time to ensure they make sound regulatory decisions, which consider compliance with all applicable clauses of the Building Code. This can be difficult for a building control officer to do thoroughly if his or her first encounter with the building project is during an inspection when construction has already started.

The Department concludes that the Council still needs to recruit additional building control staff, despite the progress made since the 2004 review. In particular, the Department believes that the Council needs additional staff resources to cope with technically complex work. The Council may also require additional consent processing staff should it consider conducting more of its consent processing work in-house.