Election Calls 2026
BUILDING OFFICIALS INSTITUTE OF NEW ZEALAND
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Our vision Shaping the future of building surveying to deliver building excellence for New Zealanders
Our mission
Improving the quality and performance of the built environment by setting the standard, building capability, and leading the industry. The Building Officials Institute of New Zealand (BOINZ) is the peak body for building surveying in New Zealand, established in 1967. A not-for-profit charitable organisation, we have a national office and nine branches across the country. Our more than 1,250 members bring professional expertise across building consenting and inspections, pre-purchase property inspection, and building project management.
As the professional voice of building surveying, BOINZ is uniquely positioned to offer practical, independent advice on the reforms needed to deliver safer homes, better-performing buildings, and a stronger construction system for New Zealanders.
Built on strategy – Powered by people – Connected for the future
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Contents Our priorities ........................................................................................................ 4 Strengthen accountability ..................................................................................... 4 The issue .......................................................................................................... 4 Our recommendations ...................................................................................... 6 Build capability .................................................................................................... 6 The issue .......................................................................................................... 7 Our recommendations: ..................................................................................... 8 Back policy with evidence ..................................................................................... 8 The issue .......................................................................................................... 8 Enable quality outcomes....................................................................................... 9 The issue .......................................................................................................... 9 Our recommendations .................................................................................... 10 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 10
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Our priorities New Zealanders deserve a building system that delivers safer, quality buildings with efficient processes and a productive and innovative sector they can have confidence in. BOINZ, as the voice of independent building system expertise, calls on the next Government to focus on four priorities to achieve this:
Strengthen accountability Fix the cause, not the symptom. Too many building delays, costs, and risks are being driven by poor-quality inputs, uneven competence, and unclear accountability across the build process. Do not weaken oversight before the sector is ready. The next Government must strengthen clear duties, proven competence, effective supervision, fit-for-purpose licensing, and enforceable consequences. Faster consenting depends on better inputs. BOINZ is calling for reform that lifts quality at the start of the process so councils can assess work more efficiently and New Zealanders can have greater confidence in the buildings they live and work in.
The issue The building consent system is often blamed for delays and rising costs, when many of these problems stem from the quality of the design and construction information being submitted. • • •
More than 80% of consent applications fail and involve Requests for Information (RFIs) from Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) More than 50% of inspections fail on first inspection largely due to inadequate practitioner competency 86% of RFIs relate to submitter behaviour and 14% to receiver behaviour. Of the 86%, the main issue is missing and incorrect documents.
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
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Of the 14%, the main issue was that RFIs need not have been sent.
This evidence 1 shows that delays and higher costs are often symptoms of deeper industry problems rather than the consenting process: weak capability, poor-quality inputs, and unclear accountability. That significantly impacts consumers, councils, and the wider economy. It is time to address the real problem. Unclear roles and responsibilities When roles and responsibilities are unclear or outdated under the Building Act, accountability is weakened across the design and build process. That leads to disputes, delays and rework, with user-pays systems disproportionately shifting the added costs onto homeowners, builders and councils alike. Poor competency oversight The Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP) scheme is an important part of a high-performing building system. But if the next Government wants stronger outcomes, the scheme must do more to assure real competence and accountability in practice. It does not provide consistent, enforceable assurance that practitioners remain competent in the areas they are licensed for. We support reviewing competency standards, licensing classes, and ongoing professional development requirements so licensing better reflects actual areas of expertise and risk. Nor does it provide clear lines of accountability around supervision when defects occur. Urgent clarification is needed. We support MBIE’s proposed supervision endorsement so only practitioners who can demonstrate competence in supervision can oversee Restricted Building Work. We also support the mandatory inclusion of qualified building surveyors on the Construction and Specialist Trades Industry Skills Board, as they bring independent expertise across the full range of practitioner inputs. We also welcome moves to replace joint and several liability with a proportionate liability regime. We believe this will drive better behaviour and encourage a natural progression towards continual professional development. Self-certification a step too far We do not support expanding self-certification or reducing BCA involvement before the sector can show consistently higher standards of design quality, construction quality, and professional accountability. Reducing independent inspections too quickly will weaken consumer protection and repeat mistakes earlier building regulation reforms were designed to prevent. Before expanding self-certification, the next Government must strengthen practitioner competence, improve supervision controls, create more specialised licensing classes, clarify 1 https://www.branz.co.nz/design-build/publications/modeldocs-transforming-building-consentingbehaviour-for-better-housing-2024
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
designer and builder responsibilities, and ensure disciplinary systems can effectively address poor performance. Hindering innovation Innovation in the building sector is constrained less by the consent system itself and more by inconsistent competency, unclear accountability, fragmented responsibilities, poor-quality documentation, and a liability system that has encouraged defensive behaviour. If New Zealand strengthens competency, licensing, and liability frameworks, innovation can occur with confidence rather than by reducing oversight in the hope that innovation will follow.
Our recommendations • • •
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Clarify and strengthen roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for all parties across the build process under the Building Act. Strengthen consequences where duties are not carried out properly Strengthen the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme: o Lift and prove competence, with tighter entry requirements, ongoing CPD and reassessments in high-risk areas o Define scope and responsibility clearly, such as specialist licence classes o Make supervision real – only endorsed LBPs can supervise with full accountability for all work done under their licence o Enforce accountability and liability o Enable trust-based consenting, reducing BCA oversight only when proven capability, clear accountability, and robust assurance systems are in place. Improve transparency and reporting across the construction process, support owner education, enable better collaboration, make quality and fitness for purpose a stronger focus, and carry out a full strategic review of the system within five years. Continue with policy progressing a proportional liability framework.
Build capability Build capability before shifting risk. New Zealand is asking more of the building sector without yet ensuring the workforce has the consistent skills, regulatory understanding, and career-long development needed to carry that responsibility. Make competence a system requirement. The next Government must back nationally consistent competency frameworks, ongoing professional development, and stronger links between industry training and regulatory practice. Quality upstream means faster delivery downstream. Reforms must lift capability across design, construction, supervision, and building control so New Zealand can improve productivity without compromising safety, quality, or consumer confidence.
Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
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The issue Awareness of the Building Code is far from adequate in the design professions and across the construction sector. System-wide capability gap This is not just a workforce shortage issue. New Zealand is investing in training and apprenticeships, but the sector still faces uneven capability in design, compliance understanding, supervision, and coordination. Independent workforce research 2 points to persistent gaps in planning, compliance literacy, and wider system knowledge. Responsibility is increasing without consistent oversight Designers are already legally responsible for producing plans and specifications that result in compliant buildings 3, but there is still no nationally consistent framework for ongoing competency assurance or mandatory upskilling across the construction sector as standards and systems evolve. As liability reforms continue to shift responsibility away from councils and onto the private sector, capability assurance is not keeping pace. 4 Building control is managing risk, not creating it BCAs are sometimes presented as barriers to faster delivery. In reality, they are managing risks created elsewhere in the system. If future governments want faster, more efficient consenting, they must also address the weak inputs and capability gaps that slow the system down in the first place.
“If capability improves upstream, consenting becomes faster downstream—without lowering standards.”
Entry pathways do not yet support system maturity Current training initiatives are helping people enter the sector 5, but they do not yet provide a career-long capability pathway that builds code interpretation skills, understanding of performance-based design, and awareness of how decisions affect inspection and certification. Small and medium-sized businesses, where much of the work occurs, are often the least supported in this area. 6
https://buildingtoday.co.nz/2026/02/10/new-national-survey-reveals-hidden-skills-gaps-shaping-nzsconstruction-workforce/ 3 https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0072/latest/DLM4356451.html 4 https://www.dentons.co.nz/en/insights/articles/2025/september/25/what-new-zealands-biggestbuilding-consent-overhaul-means-for-contractors-and-engineers 5 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/building/supporting-a-skilled-and-productiveworkforce/construction-skills-action-plan 6 https://buildingtoday.co.nz/2026/02/10/new-national-survey-reveals-hidden-skills-gaps-shaping-nzsconstruction-workforce/ 2
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Capability gaps are not a future risk. They are a serious and unacceptable reality driving avoidable added costs, delays and consumer harm across New Zealand’s building system.
Our recommendations: • • • •
Urgently start work to deliver stronger, nationally consistent competency frameworks for designers and all building sector trades Set ongoing professional development expectations, not just initial qualification Improve integration between industry training and regulatory understanding Recognise building control as a core part of public risk management.
“The 2026 election is an opportunity to shift the conversation from speed and volume to capability and quality — without slowing delivery.”
Back policy with evidence Reform must follow the evidence. Building policy decisions carry real costs and risks for councils, BCAs, practitioners, applicants, consumers, and communities. When reform moves faster than the evidence, the system pays the price. Ground reform in system data. The next Government must use clear evidence, consistent national data, and realistic risk analysis before changing building law, reducing oversight, or shifting responsibility. Measure what matters before mandating change. BOINZ is calling for national data standards, funded data collection, and policy decisions tested against real-world capability, cost, safety, and quality outcomes.
The issue Changes to building law and policy can create significant cost for councils, BCAs, designers, engineers, software providers, and applicants, even when the intention is to improve efficiency or reduce costs. That is why the next Government should only pursue reforms that are grounded in strong evidence, clear system data, and a realistic understanding of where risk sits and what change will mean in practice. It is encouraging that MBIE is expanding the data it collects to better understand the external inputs affecting the consenting process. However, extracting and reporting that information comes at a real cost, and the data should be used carefully to inform future policy decisions.
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Recent deregulation, including the new standalone dwelling process, shows the risk of moving faster than the sector’s capability. Reform should not get ahead of the evidence. If candidates and MPs want a more efficient system, they must also ensure the sector is ready to deliver it safely and well.
Our recommendations: • • •
Reaffirm the reasons for using evidence-based data to inform policy decisions and measure their effectiveness going forward. Continue to progress work underway to set national data standards to enable a consistent picture across the system. Formally allocate funding for data collection. The data is required for MBIE to meet its stewardship obligations under the Building Act.
Good data equals good decisions. These priorities are designed to support a building system that is safer, more efficient, and better equipped to deliver high-quality outcomes for communities, consumers, and industry.
Enable quality outcomes The issue New Zealand’s Building Consent Authorities (BCAs) provide critical professional independence, technical integrity and accountability to the building system.
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Election Calls 2026 Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
Without this, the system would follow a path towards building failure and the extreme long-term costs, and sometimes tragic outcomes, associated with it. However, BCAs have become the political and industry scapegoat for delays and costs that result from failings at consent application and inspection stages. According to 2023 Model Docs research, 80% of building design applications failed and 50% of inspections failed. That reflects poor-quality inputs from designers and builders, not BCAs being tardy. Rather than being an obstacle, BCAs are one of the few building quality safeguards building owners and occupiers have, backed by regulatory competency and accountability. They perform strongly by international standards, must process consent applications within statutory timeframes, and rely on building surveyors trained across competency levels from residential to complex commercial work. There is room to improve, and we broadly support structural reforms designed to improve the efficiency and consistency of BCAs, while ensuring their independence and quality assurance roles are retained. However, the call for centralised consenting of large commercial projects into a single authority is a step too far, and one not backed by evidence that a single authority would deliver faster, cheaper and more efficient outcomes. The practical work of consenting would still need to be completed and qualified staff retained. Centralisation risks reducing competition, stripping independent responsibility and knowledge from decisions, weakening council capability and concentrating too much influence in one organisation. If profit-driven, the public would rightly question whether commercial incentives belong alongside decisions about safe, compliant and durable buildings.
Our recommendations We encourage the next government to continue to progress the following reforms: •
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enabling councils to voluntarily merge or share BCAs where it makes sense to do so, facilitated by legislative change. Many are already working together with other council BCAs to gain economies of scale. replacing joint and several liability with proportionate liability, removing significant disproportionate risk BCAs currently face where defects occur and the ‘cowboys’ have left.
Conclusion BOINZ is calling on the next Government to choose practical, evidence-based reform that fixes the causes of delay, cost, and risk in the building system — not just the symptoms. By strengthening accountability, building capability, and backing policy with robust data, New Zealand can move towards a system that delivers safer homes, better buildings, faster and more reliable processes, and greater confidence for everyone who designs, builds, owns, and lives in the places we create. www.boinz.org.nz