Maurice Williamson

Wellington, July 9 NZPA - The first of new consents for multiple building has been issued.

A new streamlined national multiple-use approval service for volume builders --called multiproof -- enables builders to obtain fast-tracked building consents for standard multiple-use building designs.

Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson said Christchurch-based Spanbild was the first to get multiProof approval and Palmerston North-based Little Buildings Limited was the first to have consent issued for a MultiProof-approved design.

Mr Williamson said Little Buildings had saved $2800 on consent fees for its first two houses and the consents were issued within three working days.

Mr Williamson presented the certificate for the first MultiProof approval to Spanbild chief executive Peter Jensen at a function held in Christchurch today.

For building designs that have MultiProof approval, only site-specific conditions will need to be checked by local councils, reducing the timeframe for building consent decisions from 20 days to 10 days or less.

"The range and application of these designs demonstrates the flexibility of a MultiProof approval to address variations around standard designs," Mr Williamson said.