Property developers say the Government's proposed reform to resource management "sounds all very nice" and could "theoretically" reduce costs, but full implementation is a way off and the devil will be in the detail.
Environment Minister David Parker on Tuesday revealed how the Government plans to repeal and replace the current Resource Management Act (RMA). It's been described by Parker as "broken" and there is cross-party support for changes to allow for cheaper and quicker consenting.
The crux of the Government's proposal is reducing 100 current plans down to just 15 for each region to ensure more consistent rules. These planning documents will be written by regional committees and influenced by a national direction and 30-year regional spatial strategies. There will also be new environmental limits and targets - for things like air quality or water - that developments will have to occur within.
But the new system will take 10 years to fully implement. It will be introduced to different regions in tranches over the coming years.
Kirsty Merriman, a property developer, told AM there won't be any short-term change.
"Clearly, the main Bills have just been announced and there is going to be a lot of work to get it sorted out," she said. "The amount of work required to sort it out will not affect us for quite some time."
"I don't think it will easily be brought in earlier. I think there is a lot of work, there is a lot change. Overall, I think it is positive, but we are moving to one key component and that is spatial planning. That is forward looking. We have got probably a different way of thinking. People need to be brought in that are going to be thinking 30-100 years out, planning areas, redoing via committee."
She said it could "theoretically" lead to less cost.
Bayard McKenzie, the Development Collective director, agreed they are now in a "holding period", but believes the proposed new system will be better than the current process and "possibly cheaper".
"In a utopian sense, you are shrinking 100 plans to 15 and it sounds all very nice and fluffy. That is the general vibe for it. The idea is to simplify the process for sure, but the devil is going to be in the detail isn't it."
Both were hesitant to say the new system will lead to faster processes.
The Opposition parties are concerned the Government's reforms will only lead to more bureaucracy and centralisation.
National leader Christopher Luxon said the Government has taken a 900-page piece of legislation and replaced it with a new Bill that's about 800 pages.
"There's not a lot of reduction in bureaucracy, uncertainty, complexity and speed of implementation. We need to be much more agile much, much quicker."
He also took issue with it taking 10 years to fully implement the new system.
"That's just way too long," Luxon said. "We need to get moving. We've got an infrastructure challenge in this country. We need to get houses built. We have a supply-side problem. We need an RMA that actually unlocks and gets things done."
But Parker said it will lead to cheaper consents and the time to receive a consent will be "substantially lower".
He said council fees for notified consents have more than doubled between 2015 and 2019, with the cost of infrastructure projects up 70 percent over the same period. In some cases, consenting costs are 5.5 percent of the total project costs for some infrastructure developers.
Time to consent infrastructure projects rose by 150 percent between 2010 and 2014, and between 2015 and 2019.
The new system will mean for every $1 spent, between $2.58 and $4.90 will be reaped in benefits, Parker said. Conservative modelling shows the cost to users will fall by 19 percent a year - $149m - which could mean savings of more than $10 billion over 30 years.
