Strategic direction

Overview of how the Department contributes to the Government strategic direction

The Importance of the Building and Housing Sector

The building and housing sector is an important contributor to New Zealand's economic and environmental performance and social wellbeing. It contributes around 5 percent to gross domestic product and impacts on every person in New Zealand in terms of where they live, work and how their communities function.

The sector has an important role to play in long-term sustainable strategies for the economy, society, environment and culture.

The sector covers physical building and construction, building professionals and local authorities, through to home and building owners, investors, landlords and tenants, and property managers.

The Government influences overall sector performance, the quality of building and housing, and the built environment. The Government interest in the sector is a consequence of the drive to build a sustainable economy, and to sustain family and community living standards. This is achieved by:

• regulating building and housing standards and systems
• regulating building and construction
• building consumer awareness
• providing information and services
• providing social housing and other housing programmes
• conducting research and evaluation, and providing technical advice.

These regulations and services benefit the quality of life for everyone. The work of the Department contributes to the Government's three key themes.

• Economic transformation: by supporting the development of a sustainable economy based on innovation and quality
• Families - young and old: by sustaining family and community living standards
• National identity: by supporting innovation and good design in the built environment.

Economic transformation

Over the next decade, the Government is working to progress our economic transformation into a high-income, knowledge-based market economy, which is both innovative and creative, and provides a unique quality of life for all New Zealanders.

Strong, vibrant communities and cities attract and retain people because they are great places to live and work. How well our cities and towns work, and the quality of our built environment, matter for them to be an attractive destination for people and skills. Building sustainable cities is an important part of this. The regulatory framework needs to be flexible, cost effective, simple to administer and strike the right balance on risk considering both costs and benefits.

A sustainable building and housing sector contributes to New Zealand's growth and economic performance, environmental outcomes and social wellbeing. The converse is also true - a poorly performing sector can be a significant barrier to growth and have negative impacts on the wellbeing and wealth of individuals, as well as imposing substantial environmental costs.

Housing and building activity levels have a significant impact within the economy, with a direct effect on the consumer price index and interest rates. Activity levels also influence spending levels and provide wider benefits from employment in the sector. Housing also makes up a substantial portion of household assets with Reserve Bank of New Zealand data showing that housing's share of total household net wealth has increased from around 60% in 1978 to just over 70% by 2006.

Good-quality homes result from a building quality system that ensures homes are warm, safe and healthy, offer appropriate amenity and are sustainable, and are designed and built by building practitioners who are competent and accountable.

Good-quality commercial buildings provide the basis for innovative and productive workplaces. They contribute directly to developing a safe and healthy workplace, which in turn underpins workplace productivity and innovation.

Building and housing issues also impact directly on the environment through urban sprawl, in-fill effects, resource consumption (materials, energy, water, etc), infrastructure requirements (transport, energy, sewerage systems and water supply), and people's sense of the amenity value of their neighbourhoods. Growing urbanisation and demands on energy make enhancing energy efficiency and reducing waste and pollution important goals. Yet these can also have significant flow-through effects on building materials, housing, and building design and construction (or repair and retrofitting) costs. Getting the balance right between costs and benefits, both short term and long term, is critically important.

A well-performing building and construction sector needs to have the capacity and skills to deliver high-quality buildings to meet demand now and be responsive to future needs. Current capacity and capability constraints across the sector are impacting on sector productivity and performance.

The Government and the sector both recognise the need for reform to lift the performance of the sector through improved building quality and improved skills and professionalism across the sector. Working with its sector stakeholders, the Department is delivering a programme of reforms to drive improved performance. These are wide-ranging reforms that are being implemented over time and can therefore be expected to deliver results in the medium term. At the same time attention is being paid to ensuring there is an appropriate balance between the costs of reform and lifting the bar.

Families - young and old

Over the next decade, the Government wants to ensure that all families, young and old have the support and choices they need to be secure and be able to reach their full potential within our knowledge-based market economy.

Sustainable family and community living standards are supported by strong families, healthy, confident kids, safe communities, better health for all and positive ageing.

Good-quality housing will contribute to the development of strong families, their wellbeing, and the health, educational and social development of children. Housing and the surrounding built environment also provide the base for families to engage with the community of which they are a part, allowing the development of community links and networks. The built environment provides for both the commercial and social needs of the community. Well-designed built environments provide spaces for recreation, which in turn can help foster healthy and confident kids, and better health for all. They can also provide for connection with the environment, which supports people being happier in their environment. Good planning and design is also central to providing a built environment that enhances community safety.

The Department works with Housing New Zealand Corporation under the New Zealand Housing Strategy to achieve a vision that 'all New Zealanders have access to affordable, sustainable, good-quality housing appropriate to their needs'. The Department's focus under the strategy is on sustainable development in the building and housing sector as a whole and good quality development in urban areas. As the monitoring department for Housing New Zealand Corporation, the Department works with the Corporation to support the upgrading of the social housing stock and the development of initiatives to support homeownership.

Housing affordability is a significant issue. Homeownership and affordable rental housing are important public policy issues. The Department is further developing its understanding of the homeownership and rental markets to enhance its ability to provide the Government with high-quality advice on these matters. The forecast decline in homeownership and changes in family structures mean policies and strategies may have to be more adaptable in the future and the policy and regulatory environment supportive of a wider range of housing tenure options.

National identity

Over the next decade, the Government wants all New Zealanders to be able to take pride in who we are, through our arts, culture, film, sports and music, appreciation of our natural environment, understanding of our history and our stance on international issues.

Houses, buildings and the built environment play an important part in defining New Zealand's national identity. While these are places where people live and work, they also reflect national history and sense of identity and place. New Zealand architecture draws upon the heritage of the people who have settled here, and has evolved in a manner that takes account of our unique geography, climate and lifestyle. The design, functionality and materials used in homes, buildings and the built environment make a statement about national identity. They contribute to how New Zealand is seen by the world.

Outcomes framework for the Department of Building and Housing

Click picture for larger image.

The Department's contribution

The establishment of the Department of Building and Housing has been an important step in building government capability to effect changes in a vital sector of the economy and society.

The Department's advice, regulatory, dispute resolution and information functions provide the basis for addressing the significant issues facing the building and housing sector, which are:

• sustainability
• affordability
• quality
• skills and training
• sector performance
• technology and innovation
• consumer expectations.

The following section sets out the Department's strategies to address these issues.

Outcomes to be achieved medium term

The Department has an important leadership role to play in working with the building and housing sector to lift standards and performance. It must also look ahead and consider how our buildings and built environment can better meet New Zealanders' needs now and in the future, and how to best respond to changing building technologies and systems, and changing housing needs.

The Department will:

• deliver value to New Zealanders from effective design and delivery of building sector reforms
• build and maintain effective sector relationships and continue to work with the sector to drive delivery of reforms and changes in behaviour
• contribute to work on housing affordability
• develop and deliver on its role in sustainable development
• continue to improve and develop delivery of services
• lift consumer awareness, understanding and appreciation of building quality and performance
• continue to develop the organisation and build internal capability.

The Outcome Framework (above) shows how the Department's capability initiatives, outputs and key strategies link to deliver on intermediate sector outcomes, the overall sector outcome, and the Government's priorities.

Achieving our outcomes

All of our activities seek to contribute to the overall sector outcome:

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.

We have identified four intermediate sector outcomes required to achieve this overall sector outcome. Those intermediate sector outcomes are as follows.

• Buildings that perform well in the New Zealand environment and contribute to sustainability
• A strong, well-performing sector with skilled building and housing professionals
• Well-designed, well built, warm, safe and healthy homes and buildings that meet the changing needs of New Zealanders and contribute to strong, effective communities
• Confident building and home owners, tenants and users.

Our contribution to these intermediate sector outcomes is directed through our operating intentions incorporated in the strategies (detailed over the following pages). Each of these strategies requires us to work closely with others, including other government and non-government bodies, local government, industry stakeholders and consumers.

The Department's strategies are as follows.

• Implement sector-wide reform and work to develop refinements to streamline the building design and consenting process that supports the supply of quality, affordable homes
• Work with the sector to encourage learning, enhance and support professional behaviour and improvement in skills and knowledge to achieve system efficiency
• Foster investment in research into building science and building design
• Improve the sustainability of the built environment so that it contributes to a strong economy, positive living environments and effective communities
• Raise consumer knowledge of, and confidence in, housing, building and construction issues through access to quality information and advice
• Deliver integrated, connected, responsive and accessible services that are valued by New Zealanders
• Continue to build the capability and performance of the Department to deliver value for New Zealanders.