Page 88 - Build 153

Departments/Innovation
By Ross McCarthy, Strategic and Engagement Manager – GoShift, Wellington City Council
Simpler, faster building consents
It can be frustrating applying for building consents with di erent councils, but this could soon be just a bad memory. Many councils have now agreed to standardise and align their processes.
TWENTY-TWO councils around the lower North Island and top of the South Island have signed up to GoShift, a programme to standardise and simplify the building consenting process.
The aim of GoShift is to make it easier and faster for building professionals to get the job done.
Local and central government partnership
GoShift is a partnership between central and local government to improve perfor- mance, consistency and service delivery across the building consent system.
Its key bene ts are:
● standardised and aligned forms, templates and checklists across the participating councils
● the ability to share online services, data and resources
● a single, best-practice quality management system
● faster consent processing.
GoShift is led by Wellington City Council with the support of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Multiple councils, multiple processes
Currently, multiple councils issue building consents, all using separate forms and processes on separate systems. This means customers may be applying for a building consent using a paper form that has to be posted or hand delivered, online via a website or a mix of both.
Information about customers sits with the council where they rst applied. If they later apply to a di erent council for a di erent job, they will have to start again.
The inspection and consent process is the same – multiple and unconnected application forms, processes and payments.
GoShift to improve e ciency and service
When GoShift is completed, customers will be able to go to a website and apply and pay for their building consents and approvals online.
If they are applying to councils that are part of GoShift, they will use the same forms, templates and checklists. Because partici- pating councils are sharing information, this will be available no matter what council customers are dealing with.
Nelson City Council Chief Executive Clare Hadley chairs GoShift’s Programme Control Group. Clare says GoShift means designers, builders and other operators who may work in several local authority areas will not have the hassle of interpreting a range of often- confusing and contradictory forms.
‘It’s about councils sharing services to be more e cient and provide better services to their customers.’
86 — April/May 2016 — Build 153