Auckland Council under the pump with building consents

Auckland Council is looking to improve its building consent processes as the city experiences a building boom and unprecedented growth.

A building boom and looming ramp up in the Government's KiwiBuild programme has got Auckland Council rethinking its building consent processes.

In the last financial year, the council issued 12,300 consents for new houses - the highest since 2004 - and commercial and industrial space increased by 64 per cent on the previous year.

The council is also carrying out 160,000 building inspections and issuing 15,000 code of compliance certificates a year.

Today, the council released the findings of an independent review of its building consents 'Meeting Demand Programme', which found it is on the right track but needs to speed up work in areas like forecasting, recruitment and systems.

Chief executive Stephen Town said the council had been "under the pump" issuing building consents.

Senior officers outlined measures being taken to address unprecedented growth in current and future building consent numbers.

Key areas are recruiting and training consenting and building inspection staff. Another recruitment drive will be held in Canada, where 14 to 16 staff were recruited 12 to 18 months ago.

Town did not believe Government plans for an urban development authority with its own set of planning rules in specified areas in Auckland would cause problems for council, saying it was intended to work in partnership, not competition, with council.

The biggest concern with the authority, said regulatory services director Penny Pirrit, would be losing experienced and well-qualified council staff to the Government body.

Auckland Council chief executive Stephen Towns says Auckland has been under the pump issuing building consents.

Pirrit said the shift to more medium and higher density developments means the numbers of housing units per consent application has increased by 10 per cent over the past year.

"This council started implementing the 'Meeting Demand Programme' with projects to improve workflow management, monitoring and reporting. The council also increased its external contracted resource by 30 per cent and has staff working significant overtime hours," she said.

The review, by consultants Martin Jenkins, made a number of recommendations, including improvements to the Meeting Demand Programme and increasing recruitment.

The council has been told by the Office of the Auditor General for several years to improve its building and resource consent processes.

Pirrit said council had been putting in place an improvement programme at the same time it was experiencing continual growth that has not levelled off.