MBIE to monitor building supply prices – Ministers
Building supply prices will be monitored by the government in response to the Commerce Commission’s building supplies study, Ministers have announced.
Land covenants across the entire economy will also be reviewed.
It’s part of the government’s response to the Commerce Commission’s final report in its Residential Building Supplies Market Study, delivered in December.
The government has largely agreed to eight of the commission’s nine recommendations and said it would go further on three, with the only recommendation not taken up – to promote compliance with the Commerce Act – fitting “within the commission’s current work programme”.
One of the eight recommendations agreed to, seven were agreed in full with one – introducing competition as a regulatory objective – agreed “in principle” and will be considered as part of the Building Consent System review.
The government said it would go further on this measure, by requiring MBIE to monitor building supply prices.
Last month the Government finally moved on regulating the outrageous situation of Building supply prices and while the Commerce Commission is now asking questions about the same uncompetitive tactics in the drainage industry, it isn’t happening fast enough.
The country is being forced to rebuild from the floods and storms yet the same uncompetitive duopolies controlling drainage supplies are still in effect pushing up costs to the final cost of the build.
This is particularly damning when you consider Kāinga Ora has so many state houses built on flood prone land!
They have 15% of state houses on current flood plains AND of Kāinga Ora’s future builds, 16 per cent were in rainfall or river flood-prone areas and 1.7 per cent were in coastal flooding zones at risk of sea level rise!
Why are we allowing the ongoing cost strangulation of drainage to continue to hit our base costs for State Housing when so many State Houses are prone to flooding?
The Commerce Commission needs to open an urgent inquiry into the drainage industry so that the two main suppliers can’t do to plumbing what the big construction players are doing to everyone built above the land.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
“Monitoring” is the go to when you don’t know what to do or have no intention of doing anything but want to portray you care and so pretend to.
Measure, record and report!!
This is fundamental to any policy making and decisions.
No wonder we are in trouble.
Well, the building suppliers and developers need a good shafting not more reports.
The Govt. should have put the almost 5$bill recently announced to basically subsidise banks yet again, to make it slightly easier for first home buyers, into public housing. They could use flat packs from China and Europe to stick it to the local industry parasites.
They do that in absence of an understanding of performance.
To be successful one needs to measure, record and report and ….. only then analyse options of intervention before creating and implementing policy.
Vacuum heads comes to mind.
Are you telling me government has not been monitoring these things?
No wonder our policies are up to shit!
Megan Wood is a proven failure,so to expect her to do something useful,is to be the ultimate optimist.
oh c’mon martyn be fair there will be an inquiry, a commission and a working party then another report, what do you want? change?…you might as well ask for another bowl of gruel
What monitoring is happening resulting in something good for we NZs? Is it like being blackboard monitor at school and everything gets wiped so we could start again, the child asks innocently? Hah. Building costs are probably resource costs set by overseas entiies like pension funds, hedge investors (the hedges being high to stop prying eyes)?
Labour Government Ministers wouldn’t qualify for a monitors job in a primary school.