SDC: Building industry under pressure

Southland builders are under extreme pressure and the ‘‘quality’’ of their building consent applications is down as a result, a district council staffer has suggested.

About 75% of building consent applications to the Southland District Council in November were sent back for more information.

At a meeting this week, deputy mayor Christine Menzies asked staff if the figure had reduced; but the council’s building solutions manager Julie Conradi indicated it had not.

Conradi said she felt for the building industry, which was ‘‘under extreme pressure and working as fast as they can, and that is where we are seeing that drop in quality in building consent applications’’.

‘‘Everybody is seeing the cost of building work going up,’’ Conradi said.

‘‘They want their consents through council as soon as possible, they want their building work [done] as soon as possible, they are managing some very intense expectations from their clients, so it means they are working as quickly as possible and human error does increase.’’

Talks with the building industry had been positive, but the council was not seeing the quality of the applications improve to the point where they were ‘‘one touch’’ applications.

If the council asked for more information it was not trying to prove it knew more, she said.

‘‘The regulations say if it’s not provided with the application it can’t be considered.’’

A builder contacted in the Southland district suggested the fault lay with both parties.

Sometimes builders, or their designers submitting the consent applications on their behalf, did not get it right. But he said the council had new staff who were asking for more information on ‘‘insignificant’’ clauses which he had not been asked about before, and which more experienced consenting staff worked around.

A report to the council says 84 of the 273 building consents currently being processed by the council are waiting for further information.

Conradi said the council currently had 11 building consent officers at a variety of levels of experience [between six months and five-plus years].

‘‘Ideally, the council would like to have 15 building consent officers with at least three years’ experience in order to deliver all services efficiently.’’

The council had four vacancies for building consent officers and one other vacancy for a technical assessor.

‘‘These are difficult roles to fill with experienced workers as there is a nationwide shortage of this skillset, so councils are competing with each other and with contracting companies for skilled building consent officer staff.’’

‘‘Everybody is seeing the cost of building work going up . . . They want their consents through council as soon as possible, they want their building work [done] as soon as possible, they are managing some very intense expectations from their clients, so it means they are working as quickly as possible and human error does increase.’’

Julie Conradi

Southland District Council building solutions manager