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Housing Minister Chris Bishop has revealed cabinet is giving itself new powers to override local government if it believes councils have overly restrictive plans.
This is a significant announcement, giving ministers the ability to unilaterally change the district plans that councils develop and vote on. That will effectively leave Chris Bishop as, for a limited time, the man in czar of planning law.
Here’s how Bishop described his new power:
Cabinet has agreed to insert a new regulation making power into the RMA, allowing us to modify or remove provisions in local council plans if they negatively impact economic growth, development capacity, or employment.
He said there would be some restrictions on the ability a minister to intervene. First, they would need to consider if the council was – simply – doing what it had do to under the RMA and national direction. They would also need to “engage with the local authority”. He said this new power was “only an interim measure”.
The new power would be in parliament soon, added as an amendment to the RMA Amendment Bill which has already been introduced.
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