The Planning Act and Natural Environment Act are now law, and the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) is one step closer to its second repeal in less than a decade. But what’s changed since the Acts were introduced back in December 2025?
For an outline of those original proposals you can read our earlier articles on the Acts’ structure and framework and changes to the consenting process.
What has stayed the same?
The new Acts retain the proposed hierarchy of planning instruments. At the top sit the statutory goals, followed by National Policy Direction and national standards. Regional spatial plans, land use plans and natural environment plans then translate that national direction into regional and local decision-making.
The structure matters because each lower-tier instrument must implement the direction above it. The practical detail will therefore sit not only in the Acts, but also in the national instruments and the combined regional plans developed under them.
Refined goals under each Act
Both Acts set different overarching goals intended to achieve the purpose of those Acts. Since their introduction the goals have been slightly amended:
- Planning Act: urban development and infrastructure is to be “enabled” rather than planned and provided for; natural hazard risks are now tied to land use and development.
- Natural Environment Act: new goal to “support and enable the enhancement of the natural environment”; reference to “within environmental limits” is removed from the goal enabling use and development of natural resources; “no net loss” of indigenous biodiversity is replaced with protection of “significant” indigenous biodiversity; natural hazard risks are now tied to use and protection of natural resources.
There remains no hierarchy between the goals in each Act, meaning all are equally important. However, the Acts were amended to record that each key instrument is not required to seek to achieve all goals in all places at all times.
National standards
The final Acts give more direction to the content of national standards. They may direct how land use and natural resources are managed and how local authorities must make decisions and use processes and methodologies. They may also direct what is to be included in land use, natural environment, and regional spatial plans and further measuring, monitoring, and reporting requirements. National standards may create national rules which further dictate how lower-tiered plans should approach different activities.
Following the report of the Select Committee was the introduction of Initial National Standards. These can be implemented during the transition period (between Royal assent and RMA repeal) as an early adoption of the new system. Those standards:
- May identify national rules or other content as relevant to RMA decision-making; and
- Will override national or regional policy statements, New Zealand coastal policy statements, national environmental standards, and a plan or proposed plan where there is conflict or duplication.
Transitional consenting
The Acts provide for an approximate 3.25 year transition period for the new system to roll out. For an outline of the process for transitioning to the new system you can read our article on the transition framework contained within the Acts here.
Applications lodged during that transition period will be processed under the RMA, albeit a version that is amended by Acts which include changes to s 104 to restrict consent authorities from considering certain matters. Those provisions have been amended further to particularise the restriction on considering internal (and certain external) layouts of a building, by specifically excluding consideration of:
- the presence, absence, nature, or extent of windows in relation to street, balconies, or outdoor living space;
- the internal fit-out;
- the minimum unit size;
- the outlook space; and
- landscaped areas for the construction of a building (except in relation to permeability).
Also, the ability for resource consent applications to be publicly notified in ‘special circumstances’ has been removed.
New procedural principles will also be in play that require decision makers to act in a pragmatic way that supports practical solutions, ensures documents are succinct and use plain language, and ensures sufficient and necessary information is available and before further information is requested they consider the cost and feasibility of obtaining such information and the scale and significance of the matter to which their decision relates.
Regulatory relief remains
The final Acts retain the regulatory relief framework despite significant opposition during the Select Committee process. The framework recognises that controls protecting matters such as indigenous biodiversity, significant historic heritage, sites of significance to Māori, outstanding natural features and landscapes, and areas of high natural character may impose more than minor impacts on private landowners.
The detail of the available relief, and when it will be required, will be important for councils and affected landowners as new plans are prepared.
What now?
The new framework is enacted, but much of its practical effect will depend on National Policy Direction, national standards and the preparation of regional plans. Businesses, infrastructure providers, developers, primary producers and landowners should identify which national and regional instruments matter to their activities and engage early where consultation opportunities arise.
For an outline of the proposals as introduced, see our earlier article on the structure and framework here.
If you would like advice on how the new framework may affect your land, project or operations, please contact Holland Beckett’s Environment and Planning team.
