Codewords issue 100

Registrar's update

Kia ora and welcome

In this month’s Codewords, we’re going back to the very beginning of the LBP scheme.

With Restricted Building Work (RBW) having been in our vocabulary for around 8 or 9 years now, it’s an opportune time to revisit why the Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP) Scheme was introduced. In this issue, we’ve got the first in a series of articles where we will look at the whys, the hows, and the where-to-next.

Where-to-next is relevant, in that there will be a LBP discussion document sent out this year where you will be given the opportunity to have a say on where you think we should be heading with the scheme in the future. Be sure to look out for this and participate, as we would love to receive thoughts and ideas from a broad cross-section of our industry to help make the scheme even better.

We also have an article from our Investigations Team regarding the three different ways of having a LBP licence suspended – voluntary, relicensing, or through a disciplinary action.

And finally, we have an invitation to provide feedback to this year’s Building Code consultation regarding climate change and how it affects New Zealand’s building environment.

Ngā mihi

Duncan Connor

Registrar of Licenced Building Practitioners

MBIE consults on changes to the Building Code to support climate change goals

Every year, the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) consults on the Building Code and selected documents. This year, they’re considering options to increase requirements to align with other parts of the world.

The proposals in this year’s consultation include:

Develop new climate zones to better reflect the specific weather different parts of New Zealand experience
Look at the current insulation requirements and ask New Zealanders if they think the requirements need to change
Introduce a new verification method to ensure heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in commercial buildings are designed and installed to reduce the load on the national grid, make it easier to comply with the Building Code.
Changes to ensure apartment and other high rise buildings have enough natural light.

Watch our Building Code update 2021 video(external link)

In addition to the annual Building Code update, we are also consulting on the role of MBIE, as the regulator, in the upkeep and referencing of building and construction standards.

Find out more about the proposed changes or to submit feedback(external link)

MBIE will be running a webinar on 21 April 2021 to provide more details on the proposed changes, and answer any questions.

The consultation will run until Friday, 28 May 2021.