RMA reforms good for local growth - Guy
Otaki MP Nathan Guy has welcomed the National Party’s policy to further speed up the consent process for the Resource Management Act.
"Introducing a six-month time limit on the consenting of medium-sized projects is great news for Kapiti and Horowhenua.
"Projects like new factories, commercial buildings and subdivisions all help to create jobs and grow the economy. Delays in processing these consents can be enormously frustrating and costly.
"Many of these consents take over a year to resolve, longer than it takes to actually build them. We need to remove this unnecessary red-tape and encourage economic development.
"This follows on from National’s reforms over the previous three years which have dramatically reduced delays on small non-notified consents, and ensured major projects like Transmission Gully can be heard within nine months.
"Recent figures show that local councils are processing more resource consents on time over the last two years. From 2007/08 to 2010/11 Horowhenua District Council has improved from 60% to 98%, while Horizons Regional Council increased from 74% to 98%.
"Kapiti Coast District Council has remained a high achiever over the same period, going from 99% to 93%.
"The next phase of reforms will also create a new requirement for councils to consider natural hazard risks like earthquakes, which is timely.
"National’s policy on the RMA contrasts sharply with the Labour Party, who have no ideas for reform and accept the status quo."
The full policy is available here: http://national.org.nz/PDF_General/Resource_Management_Policy.pdf
"Introducing a six-month time limit on the consenting of medium-sized projects is great news for Kapiti and Horowhenua.
"Projects like new factories, commercial buildings and subdivisions all help to create jobs and grow the economy. Delays in processing these consents can be enormously frustrating and costly.
"Many of these consents take over a year to resolve, longer than it takes to actually build them. We need to remove this unnecessary red-tape and encourage economic development.
"This follows on from National’s reforms over the previous three years which have dramatically reduced delays on small non-notified consents, and ensured major projects like Transmission Gully can be heard within nine months.
"Recent figures show that local councils are processing more resource consents on time over the last two years. From 2007/08 to 2010/11 Horowhenua District Council has improved from 60% to 98%, while Horizons Regional Council increased from 74% to 98%.
"Kapiti Coast District Council has remained a high achiever over the same period, going from 99% to 93%.
"The next phase of reforms will also create a new requirement for councils to consider natural hazard risks like earthquakes, which is timely.
"National’s policy on the RMA contrasts sharply with the Labour Party, who have no ideas for reform and accept the status quo."
The full policy is available here: http://national.org.nz/PDF_General/Resource_Management_Policy.pdf