Government announces building industry regulation

3.00pm

The Government has formally announced it will tighten regulation of the building industry and extend the current review of the Building Act.

The announcement came as Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins was due to be grilled by MPs conducting an inquiry into the issue of weathertightness in homes.

Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel said the moves were necessary to restore confidence in the building industry and in the quality of New Zealand homes.

Extending the review of the Building Act would allow the findings of the current parliamentary select committee inquiry into the issue to be taken into account, Ms Dalziel said in a press release.

Mr Hawkins said Cabinet had already agreed to a number of measures, and legislation would be placed before Parliament by mid-2003.

The measures included:

* greater protection for homeowners under the Building Act;

* ensuring the Building Code met the act's objectives;

* accreditation of building certifiers and inspectors and more guidance on their roles; and

* increased support for product accreditation.

Papers accompanying the press release said the Government was concerned "there is no overarching regulation of the professionals and trades involved in the building industry" and wanted to close the gaps.

The Government had agreed in principle that builders should be subject to occupational regulation in their construction of homes.

Draughtspeople and engineers should, like architects, be subject to regulations when they were working on dwelling documentation.

Further work was under way on the detail of what the occupational regulation regime for builders working on homes would look like and whether those regulations should be extended to all builders.

Mr Hawkins said he was concerned by the "lack of overarching regulation" of all professions involved in building homes.

The review would also consider compulsory homeowner protection insurance, the Building Industry Authority's future and if the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service -- set up in response to the leaky building issue -- should be retained and its role broadened.

Mr Hawkins has been under fire for first ignoring warning signs and then playing down growing problems over leaky homes due to certain construction methods.

Mr Hawkins blamed the Building Industry Authority, saying it should have told him it was holding an inquiry. The BIA in turn eventually apologised, but said it warned the minister as soon as it was aware of the scale of the problem.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has defended her minister, saying he was poorly advised, and accused some media of "beating up" the scale of the problem.

The final part of the report instigated by the BIA and completed by former State Services Commissioner Don Hunn said it had taken a "major crisis" in the building industry to expose legislative deficiencies.

The BIA accepted the report's criticism of it but said the authority was constrained by the Building Act. The report found homeowners were let down by the act, which did not protect them enough.

Previous parts of the report said weathertightness problems were due to a variety of issues, including industry standards, culture and operations, combined with changing social and economic factors, and no one factor could be blamed.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, who took over the issue when the Government came under increasing fire for its lack of action, said at the time of the report there would be more regulation.

"We need to move back to a more regulated regime," he said.

"It is clear that stronger legislation is necessary.

"We do expect houses to be built properly... almost certainly, changes may lead to some greater costs up front."

The formal announcement of the Government's intent comes as Mr Hawkins was expected to come under heavy questioning about what he knew about the problem and in particular when he was told.

Opposition MPs have called for his resignation, saying if Mr Hawkins didn't know about the widely reported problem he was not up to the job and if he did know and ignored it he was incompetent.

- NZPA

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Herald feature: Leaky buildings

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