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The Selwyn District Council will supercharge its successful Professional Partnership Programme to give more design professionals and builders access to the fast-track consenting process.

The programme for standalone single storey detached dwellings was initially launched in 2021 aiming to approve building consents in less than 10 working days and has since approved 1315 building consents, with a current average rate of four working days.

The Council recently invited its building industry partners to relaunch the programme to announce further fine-tuning of the programme to enable an even greater range and complexity of designs to be fast-tracked, which came into force from May 1.

“These changes align to central government’s aims of creating efficiencies and cost savings in the consenting process and avoid unnecessary delays in the sector,” says Robert Love, Executive Director of Development at Growth at Selwyn District Council.

“And just judging by the reaction of the industry partners attending the launch event, we expect to create many new relationships as well as strengthening those with existing partners.”

One of the key partners, Today Homes Ltd, say that the new initiatives are a great step forward in improving the efficiency and consistency of the building consent process.

“Today Homes is proud to be part of the Selwyn District Council’s Professional Partnership Programme,” says Managing Director Jon Sanders.

“As a high-volume residential builder, we greatly value the streamlined approach, dedicated Council support, and the trust placed in experienced professionals such as Today Homes Ltd. It enables us to deliver quality homes faster, cheaper and with greater confidence.”

The upgraded programme introduces new benefits like a gold status, alongside the existing silver and bronze status for Licenced Building Practitioners, reduced consenting fees, remote inspections and streamlining the eligibility criteria to become approved partners for the Council.

“The programme is aimed to make residential designs easier to sign off for both partners by relying on experienced Licenced Building Practitioners to comply with the Building Act,” says Love.

He adds that the Council has dedicated staff to deal with approved partners to strengthen relationships and speed up the process even further.

“Selwyn is the fastest growing district in the country, which requires a steady flow of new homes, and it is our job as Council to keep exploring ways to make the consenting process, as efficient and cost effective as possible.”

Last modified: 02 May 2025 9:58am