Replacing the RMA

Environment Law partner Margo Perpick succinctly explains the impending changes for the resource management legal landscape.

The Government will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with two new laws:

• A Natural Environment Act, to focus on the use, protection, and enhancement of the natural environment, including land, air, freshwater, coastal and marine water, and other natural resources; 
• A Planning Act, to focus on land-use planning and regulation, enabling urban and infrastructure development. 

The Government aims to introduce legislation in late 2025, and pass the new Acts into law in mid-2026.

Blueprint for RMA Replacement

The Expert Advisory Group (EAG) has prepared a blueprint to replace the RMA, based on these principles: 

• Narrow the scope of the effects controlled by the legislation;
• Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed;
• Provide for greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and to simplify council plans, so that standard-complying activity cannot be subjected to a consent requirement;
• Shift the system focus from consenting before works are undertaken to strengthened compliance monitoring and enforcement;
• Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure;
• Achieve efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region jointly prepared by regional and district councils;
• Provide for rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with a Planning Tribunal (or equivalent) providing an accountability mechanism;
• Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations;
• Provide faster, cheaper and less litigious processes within shorter, less complex and more accessible legislation. 

The new system will: 

• define more closely what effects may be considered;
• raise the threshold of effects that are permitted activities;
• not control activities if land use effects are borne solely by the party undertaking the activity. 

This means that there would be a higher bar for regulatory restrictions on property, enabling property owners to use their properties as they see fit. 

National policy direction 

There will be one set of national policy directions under each new act to: 

• provide direction on the purpose of the primary legislation;
• simplify, streamline, and direct local government plans and decision-making;
• declutter the existing set of RMA national policy statements. 

This will help to ensure that councils and others implement the legislation in an efficient and nationally consistent way, and provide guidance on how to resolve conflicts between competing priorities. 

Standardisation of the system 

The new system will introduce nationally standardised land-use zones that councils select and apply in a combined district plan. This will: 

• help councils to take a similar approach to the same issues faced in other parts of the country;
• maintain local decision-making if bespoke requirements are needed to meet specific community needs or preferences;
• provide system efficiencies and reduce the financial burden on communities. 

Environmental limits and natural resource allocation  

The RMA’s ‘first in, first served’ approach to allocating natural resources is seen as inefficient and inequitable when resources are scarce. It lacks incentives for resources to be used efficiently and does not enable higher value uses.  

The EAG recommended a more deliberate framework for natural resource allocation and charging for use of natural resources.   

Streamlining the planning system 

Under the new system, there will be one combined plan per region. Each combined plan will include: 

• a spatial planning chapter, to provide long-term, strategic direction for growth;
• an environment chapter to regulate natural resource use;
• one planning chapter for each territorial authority district to regulate land use and utilise standard zones.  

Resource consents 

Fewer resource consents should be needed under the new system, because there will be more permitted activities, nationally standardised land use zones and more national standards. 

There will also be a smaller number of consent categories, making it simpler and more certain for applicants. 

People who are not directly affected by an activity will not be able to object or relitigate an issue. 

Compliance and enforcement 

The effectiveness of compliance and enforcement currently varies across the country, depending on the approaches that councils take and the resources they have available. Government intends to reduce variations, although this will be done in a separate legislative process and not part of the two new laws.

A national compliance and enforcement regulator will be set up to ensure a more consistent and effective approach across the country. 

A new planning tribunal will aim to provide for faster and low-cost dispute resolution and lessen reliance on the courts.

For expert guidance on how the reforms may affect your land or development, contact Margo Perpick or Chris Fowler.