State to update its leaky offer

The Government's financial offer to leaky building victims has been ditched and a new scheme will be out around April or May.

Maurice Williamson, Minister of Housing, Building and Construction, said last year's proposal that the state pays for 10 per cent of the disaster was off the table.

That scheme would have seen homeowners pay 65 per cent of repairs in return for not suing the councils, which would pay 20 per cent.

Mr Williamson said yesterday the 65:25:10 deal for homeowner/council/state payments was ditched two months ago. It was conditional on councils agreeing but they had not.

Instead of taking this proposal to the Cabinet, he now has other plans, he said from the Westin in Auckland where he launched Building Act 2004 reforms.

Discussions were being held between representatives of the Prime Minister's Department, Finance, Treasury and Department of Building and Housing, he said, but he would not say what this would be and referred to the national deficit as one of the biggest barriers.

Construction sector representatives met at an event hosted by the department with the Construction Industry Council.

Mr Williamson urged those attending to answer questions in the discussion document out yesterday.

Cost-effective quality: next generation building control in New Zealand aims to cut red tape, restore confidence and increase productivity in the sector. This is partly in response to the leaky building crisis, which Mr Williamson described as systemic.

But he also took a swipe at leaky-home victims, saying consumers must take more responsibility and citing a Bucklands Beach couple demanding their new house look like those in the South of Spain "where it hasn't rained for four years compared to Bucklands Beach where it hasn't rained for four hours. So we're all in this together," he said of homeowners and the state.