KEY POINTS:
Two Northland local body leaders are accusing the Government of greatly adding to home affordability costs by over-regulating the sector with bureaucratic and "gold-plated" building standards, largely as a result of the leaky home problem.
An international study released this week showed New Zealanders were increasingly unable to afford to buy houses and part of the blame was attributed to local councils' fees and charges.
But Whangarei mayor Stan Semenoff and Far North mayor Wayne Brown question whether MPs understand the "absurdity" of some building codes.
Mr Semenoff says the Government has "fallen out of the tree" in over-reacting to the leaky homes issue.
"We won't have affordable housing as long as we let bureaucrats pile unnecessary costs on the building process," Mr Semenoff says.
He believes the Government has forced councils to create bigger bureaucratic machines "to cover everyone's backsides" because of leaking houses. Mr Brown said home building processes were grossly over-regulated and over-specified.
"It's got to be a Rolls-Royce before you can get in and no one can afford that.
"The building code says you must have an extractor fan in the kitchen [for a new house]. No one ever died when we were kids from the smell of bacon and eggs being cooked."
Building and Construction Minister Shane Jones says he understands the frustration surrounding regulatory and compliance processes and plans soon to meet Northland groups within the industry.
He also intends to meet Mr Semenoff and Mr Brown to discuss issues they have raised.
Mr Jones says public meetings to be arranged with builders, merchants, unions and industry organisations will be designed to listen to concerns, including industry fears over double glazing in Northland.
Meetings would also state the department's position and how solutions could be found.
"While I am not a fan of excessive regulation, safety and health concerns in the industry have to be given priority," the minister said.
Mr Brown said council building processes could be simplified and he was trying to do this in the Far North, while Mr Semenoff said his council in Whangarei would do everything it could to make housing affordable but that would be hard unless central politicians realised they were being led by bureaucrats with gold-plated building standards.
The two mayors believe local government leaders throughout the country should make a united approach to central government in Wellington "to bring bureaucrats back to reality".
There was a balance of risk-taking in life, Mr Semenoff said, and the price of trying to remove every conceivable (building) risk was that houses were being made less and less affordable.
Earlier, Bay of Islands-Far North Certified Builders Association president Gordon Salt had raised concerns over excessive building industry regulation.
Mr Jones said it appeared Mr Salt was speaking on behalf of those in the industry at grassroots level who were frustrated by levels of compliance and regulation and he was happy to discuss the issues as soon as possible with Mr Salt and his association colleagues.
