Last week I spoke of the bureaucracy's love of property as a source of revenue in terms of local government using it as a means of striking and collecting rates.
It was therefore with some relish that I learnt of the government's plans to make local government more accountable in the processing of resource consent applications.

Typically, local bodies are not very understanding towards ratepayers who are late with their rates payments and impose stiff penalties for such transgressions. Apparently councils are about to get a dose of their own medicine with the government looking to introduce new legislation by July 1 of this year which will hit local bodies in their pockets if they fail to process consents within the prescribed period.
A report last year revealed that 31 per cent of resource consents were processed late and another 28 per cent involved an extension of time. The government is proposing that local bodies will have to give a discount of 25 per cent of the consent fee for an application which is one week late with an additional 5 per cent per week up to a maximum of 80 per cent.
This sort of approach is long overdue as anyone who has been involved in resource consent applications will testify to how some (not all) local bodies can hold up progress whilst giving no real explanation for the delays. Such delays can be very costly to business and have significant financial implications for the applicant. Indeed, some major developers have actually abandoned projects in some cities citing endless red tape as the reason.
The announcement is good news for the property industry at all levels and will be welcomed by everyone except the bureaucracy.
That has to be a happy thought for this week.