National building code to be formed by the Govt

Press, 24 April 1984, Page 19

National building code to be formed by the Govt

PA Rotorua A national building code will be formulated by the Government with an agency appointed to administer it, the Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander, told building inspectors in Rotorua. Speaking at the annual conference of the New Zea-

land Institute of Building Inspectors, Mr Friedlander said a Government review team had suggested that the new agency be called the building industry council or commission. Its first job would be to draft a national building code which should be per-

formance orientated, and not too prescriptive in its detail. New Zealand was one of the few countries which controlled its private sector building industry through a by-law system. Mr Friedlander said that as a consequence, the building industry found there

was a lack of uniformity between one local authority and another, and rightly complained about inconsistency and resultant high costs. The proposed new code, the Minister said, would be a minimum requirement. Also it would be very sensitive about cost efficiency. Mr Friedlander told the conference that the review team had advised him that the direct cost of the controls now in force was about $lOO million annually. Up to 10 per cent of building costs arose from the control system, which in money terms represented $2OO million each year for a total annual investment of $2OO billion. Part of the job of the new agency would be to look at the functions of local government in relation to building codes. This would have a real bearing on the procedures to be laid down. The area between planning and building had been examined, and there might be some need for a better definition of how far district schemes should go in laying down ordinances affecting the design and appearance of buildings, and how much of this should be incorporated in the proposed code, said Mr Friedlander.