Lucky number 30,000

On Wednesday, 29 June, Building and Housing Minister Hon Dr Nick Smith presented Christchurch man Peter Watson with a certificate which officially recognised him as the 30,000th Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP).

Registrar of Building Practitioner Licensing, Paul Hobbs says this is an exciting and significant milestone for the scheme.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the building industry right now, and making sure skilled practitioners who are licensed and qualified are carrying out the work on homes is crucial,” he says.

“The LBP scheme came into effect in 2007. It took four years for the first 10,000 licenses to be issued, but the growth in numbers has been much stronger since it became compulsory in 2012 for Restricted Building Work to be carried out or supervised by LBPs.”

“Obtaining licensing status shows the public and potential clients that you meet a minimum standard of competency in your licensed area,” Paul says.

As for Peter, the lucky number 30,000, he didn’t seem at all surprised when he received the phone call.

“I always seem to be lucky with this kind of stuff. I told the boys on site and we all had a good laugh about it,” he says.

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Peter was working on a sheep and cattle farm when he decided he wanted to contribute to the Christchurch rebuild following the earthquakes, and began a carpentry apprenticeship. He is now a fully-qualified builder working for H&R Garlick Builders, a reputable residential building company based in Canterbury.

“I’m still pretty new to the trade so I want more people to teach me things! Building is the kind of industry where you are constantly learning from others – smarter, more efficient ways of doing things – and for the moment I am enjoying soaking up as much information as I can,” says Peter.

And soaking up the excitement the attention of being number 30,000 has brought to him.