Opinion | Planning update – what’s in store for 2025

Planning in New Zealand is undergoing a period of rapid change. This is responding to well-founded concerns about inefficiencies in the planning process. As part of a broader package of policy amendments, changes to the RMA present the opportunity to lift productivity and economic growth. This is important when viewed against a backdrop of ingrained economic challenges for New Zealand including geographic isolation, an increasingly aging population, and skills shortages to name a few.  

The Government has an ambitious RMA reform programme to 2026 which is aimed at addressing these issues.  

The Fast Track Approvals Bill is set to become law by the end of the year. This will build on the fast track legislation already in place, but will take it further by placing the purpose of the legislation at the forefront of decision-making. Its purpose is simply to “facilitate the delivery of infrastructure and development projects with significant regional or national benefits.” It will be interesting to see how Expert Panels balance this objective with potentially competing directives under the RMA that remain a relevant consideration under the Bill.  

The Bill also enables an Expert Panel to decline an application if the “adverse impacts are sufficiently significant to outweigh the purpose of the Act”. This is a new concept, with the Bill providing limited direction on how this weighting should occur. The first projects to use the fast track process, particularly those that are contentious, will be important test cases.  

2025 will also see the Government introducing 21 new and amended pieces of national direction (National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards). These will be broad ranging, addressing housing, infrastructure, freshwater, heritage, papakāinga, natural hazards, highly productive land and others. Collectively, the impact of these changes in policy direction will be significant and it will be important to get involved and provide feedback to help shape their direction.  

There are benefits in taking a broad approach to these policy changes. It provides the opportunity to ensure there is good integration and that priorities and processes for managing trade-offs between competing objectives can be more clearly articulated. As a practitioner, this has been one of the key challenges with the current suite of national direction, which often pulls in different directions and can act as a constraint on delivering growth that is efficient for the community. Achieving this on the ground will continue to be a difficult task, with the unique issues present in our cities, towns and projects requiring planners to apply a pragmatic and locally relevant approach.  

Later in 2025 and into 2026 will see the Government progress its proposal for replacing the RMA. While this will incorporate and build on the changes to national direction introduced next year, this is the big one to look out for.  

Last month the Government released a Cabinet Paper outlining its intentions for replacing the RMA. There will be two new Acts, one to manage environmental effects and another to enable urban development and infrastructure. Given that urban development and infrastructure give rise to environmental effects it will be interesting to see how these two Acts stitch together in a coherent way. In general, expect to see a broad simplification and greater emphasis on permitted activities, National Environmental Standards and monitoring/enforcement. A key positive will be the requirement to have one regulatory plan per region like what we have in Auckland. For those operating outside of Auckland, this will significantly reduce complexity and reduce the costs of preparing and updating regulatory plans. 

Watch out for further updates before the end of this year and into 2025 and be sure to get involved and have your say.