On Tuesday, the Government announced some building product manufacturing will be able to take place in Auckland during Alert Level 4, to support continued residential construction activity across New Zealand.
As a result of these decisions, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) will be facilitating a process to enable Auckland-based building product manufacturers to submit their expressions of interest to Ministers to continue operation under Alert Level 4.
Ministers will be expecting a high degree of evidence to support these submissions. This may include evidence of how the building products are a critical component of residential construction, evidence of there being limited building product supply in New Zealand, and evidence of health and safety measures in place to minimise the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
The work will need to be undertaken with the minimum number of staff safely required and under Alert Level 4 rules.
Authorisation process for Auckland building product manufacturers
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has established two new processes for building product manufacturers and distributors who would like to operate in Alert Level 4 (Auckland).
There is a new process to request MBIE’s authorisation for the continued operation of manufacturing and distribution of some building products in Auckland. These specified building products to support residential construction in the rest of New Zealand are:
- coated roofing steel
- plasterboard and gypsum plaster
- cavity insulation.
To request MBIE’s authorisation you must provide the required information by 5pm on 9 September.
MBIE is able to authorise only 100 workers in total across all businesses and services to complete this activity for the above specified building products in Auckland.
MBIE will be undertaking an assessment process and providing authorisation to a limited number of businesses and services on Friday morning (10 September). Authorisations are valid for seven days from the authorisation date.
A submission process has also been developed to enable you to request that a building product be added to the specified building products.
MBIE will facilitate these processes and provide weekly advice to COVID-19 Ministers on the building products that meet the criteria. The final decisions on including building products are made by COVID-19 Ministers.
To find out more about these processes, including what information you need to provide, visit the MBIE website.