Resource Consents Update – July 2026

RMA Reform update

Last week the Environment Select Committee reported back to Parliament on the Planning Bill after hearing submissions on it earlier in the year. The Planning Bill is one of the two major pieces of legislation to replace the Resource Management Act and contains the proposed resource consenting provisions.

The Bill still needs to go through the rest of the legislative process, so some provisions could change; however, we thought it would be useful to let you know about the key changes for consenting which would come into force later this year if the Select Committee’s recommendations are adopted. 

A transitional consenting framework will kick in one month after the Planning Bill is passed and bring some elements of the new consenting provisions into effect early via amendments to the RMA. These amendments include: 

• the removal of the special circumstances test for public notification – repeal s95A(9)
• exclusions on the scope of effects – new s104(1A) 
• additional procedural principles – new s18B.

The Bill is expected to be enacted in September, which would mean the transitional consenting provisions are likely to come into effect some time in October for consent applications lodged from that date.  

The amended RMA will stay in place until all councils have prepared and notified their new Land Use Plans (to replace existing District Plans), which is expected to be in around four years’ time. The new planning system will take over then. 

Out of scope effects 

New s104(1A) would prevent councils from considering any of the following effects: 

• the internal and external layout of buildings on a site, if external layout effects remain within the site boundaries  
• effects on trade competition 
• retail distribution effects (e.g. rules relating to effects on commercial centres of retail activities occurring elsewhere) 
• demand for or financial viability of a project 
• type of residents 
• views from private property.

This means that some, or parts, of our current rules, matters of discretion, and objectives and policies would no longer be able to be considered in resource consent assessments and decisions. At this point it’s not clear which provisions will be affected, and we'll share more information when we can. The Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions & Transport (which the Ministry for the Environment is now part of) is preparing guidance on this for councils and other practitioners, which will be available before the new consenting changes come into effect. 

Once the Bill is passed and the exclusions confirmed, we’ll identify affected rules and other provisions and put this information up on our website. This will be done before the transitional consenting provisions come into effect.

Procedural principles 

These apply to resource consent assessments and decisions and include cost efficiency, timeliness, succinctness, use of plain language, and being pragmatic. Actions must be proportionate to the scale and significance of the matter.

Existing applications 

Applications lodged before the date the new provisions come into force must continue to be processed under the current RMA provisions (Schedule 1, clause 11 of the Planning Bill). This means that existing applications would need to be withdrawn and resubmitted after the commencement date, to make use of the new provisions. Applicants would still be responsible for the processing costs of withdrawn applications, but we’ll make the re-application process as simple as possible. 

We’ll provide more information on all these topics before the transitional provisions commence.

More information

This is just a summary of the main changes affecting Christchurch City Council's consent processes. More information about the Planning Bill is available on the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions & Transport website.