Auckland, Wellington behind on quake readiness: Govt

Auckland and Wellington are moving too slowly in earthquake preparation, says the Government. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Auckland and Wellington City Councils must act faster to ensure older buildings are safer during earthquakes, and the Government will legislate to force that if necessary says Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson.

The royal commission investigating building failures during the Christchurch earthquakes this week released an interim report in which it called for urgent nationwide action to strengthen thousands of older unreinforced buildings of the type that killed 42 people in the February quake.

Auckland council has produced a preliminary list of 393 pre-1940s buildings but yesterday said that list was by no means complete and work to produce a more comprehensive register of earthquake prone buildings was unlikely to completed for some time. Meanwhile it has given some owners of earthquake prone buildings until 2045 to make their buildings safer.

In Wellington the council requires earthquake-prone buildings to be strengthened within 10 to 20 years, depending on the type of building but this policy is under review since the Christchurch earthquakes and may go back to a previous timeframe of five to 15 years.

But Mr Williamson yesterday told the Herald: "I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that the Canterbury earthquakes and now the interim report of the royal commission have made it clear to us that the time frames that had been established for this bringing buildings up to code are not realistic and need to be compressed.

"Having left it as some of the councils did for a 15-year period and then allowed a five-year extension for 20 is not an acceptable view based on what the Royal Commission are saying."

Mr Williamson expected the royal commission's final report in April to make that point in even stronger terms.

He said councils would either have to do a complete revision of their earthquake prone buildings policy to speed up strengthening work.

"Or it might be that we have to, through the Building Act and through the Building Code put a mandatory requirement for people to get buildings up to the Building Code or a percentage of the Building Code and say that has to be done by a specific deadline and councils will need to enforce such a policy".