Measuring outcomes
Measuring progress
The Department continues to develop indicators to measure progress in achieving intermediate outcomes.
A list of indicators to measure the Department's outcomes was included in the Department's first Statement of Intent in 2005. Since then we have continued to make progress in the links between our outputs and the outcomes we seek to achieve. All our achievements seek to contribute to the overall outcome, refined further in our Statement of Intent 2007/10 to 'the people of New Zealand have access to quality homes and buildings that meet their needs, reflect our environment and contribute to a sustainable New Zealand'.
In our Statement of Intent 2006/09, our outcomes framework depicted the connections between our capability initiatives, outputs and key strategies to deliver our intermediate outcomes, our overall outcome and the Government's priorities. We also identified four intermediate outcomes required in order to achieve the overall outcome. We will continue to improve the way we express and measure these intermediate outcomes.
The Department's progress in identifying indicators for our four intermediate outcomes is shown in the table below.
Four intermediate outcome indicators
| Intermediate Outcome |
Indicators currently under consideration include |
| 2006 SOI: Buildings and homes that perform well in the New Zealand environment |
- A framework for a new Building Code that emphasises adaptability and sustainability
- Take-up of energy-efficient products such as insulation and solar heating
|
| 2006 SOI: A vibrant building, housing and construction sector with skilled building and housing professionals |
- The number of licensed building practitioners in the sector
- The number of people in building sector education and training
|
| 2006 SOI: Homes and buildings that meet the changing needs of New Zealanders |
- Rental tenure
- Building Code review provisions for wellbeing and physical independence
|
| 2006 SOI: Confident owners, tenants and users |
- Measures on weathertightness, consents and determinations
- Measures on dispute resolution services
|
The Department actively monitors sector outcomes and maintains oversight of the performance of building regulation systems. As part of this role, the Department monitors territorial authorities to ensure adherence to standards in the building sector. Monitoring activities will continue to include conducting technical reviews to ensure building control functions are being carried out to appropriate standards. Our 2007/10 Statement of Intent requires us to undertake and complete six technical reviews of territorial authorities in 2007/08. Accreditation is being implemented as a new assurance mechanism for future building consent authorities.
Cost-effectiveness of interventions
As the impact of changes such as those described above occur, the Department will continue to assess the effectiveness of implementation in addressing the underlying problems for which reforms have been put in place. These assessments will build on the expected regulatory effectiveness anticipated at the time regulatory reforms were expressed in legislation.
The cost-effectiveness of interventions is to be investigated in 2007/08.
Evaluative Activity
The Government has introduced a number of significant regulatory reforms, many of which will be in implementation phase in 2007/08. Regulatory changes coming into effect include, for example, changes to building quality requirements and the building industry workforce under the Building Act 2004, and changes to the operational requirements for retirement villages. Many of the programmes initiated by the Department are recent and their full effects are not yet evident.
In 2006/07 the Department worked to develop evaluative frameworks and enhanced data collection to support measurement of the impact of reforms once put in place.
A framework for monitoring the effectiveness of occupational licensing arrangements has been developed and will come into use once the first phase of the voluntary Licensed Building Practitioner Scheme commences in November 2007.
A framework has been developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service reforms. The first report to the Minister is due in May 2008.
In 2006/07 the Department participated in a range of activities as part of the Government's overall programme to examine compliance issues for business, to understand and assess administrative practices by agencies working under the requirements of the Building Act 2004 and other statutes, such as the Resource Management Act 1991.
Initiatives that have emerged from this work include, for example, providing practical help by developing links on core departmental Building Act web pages to relevant consent information on other websites. The Department will continue to provide support to enable stakeholders and users to better understand legislative and regulatory requirements. The Department will also continue to work with territorial authorities to identify where common approaches to interpretation and decision-making would be desirable, appropriate and practical, and to facilitate consistent approaches.
The Department has Local Government New Zealand's commitment to the collection of a nationally consistent set of data by their members. This will inform the implementation of reforms and provide local information to reassure communities that territorial authorities have consumer protections in place afforded by the Building Act 2004.
Key national and local indicators will be:
- improved timeliness of consent processing
- better quality of building consent applications
- improved information provision to the building sector and building/home owners on regulatory requirements.
Looking to the future, planned legislation to reform the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 and the Unit Titles Act 1972 aims to make processes easier and more efficient, and support better quality decision-making. Clarifying rights and responsibilities, and improving the processes for resolving disputes, are also planned for inclusion. The Department will measure the effect of implementing any change.
In addition, the Department will use existing research, data and relevant information on housing affordability to make further progress on outcome measurement.