Parliament extends resource consents to 2027 for certainty during RMA transition

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the move provides vital stability during a period of major legislative restructuring.

New Zealand’s Parliament has passed urgent legislation to extend the duration of thousands of existing resource consents, offering immediate certainty to farmers, councils, and businesses as the country transitions away from the Resource Management Act (RMA). The Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill, passed under urgency, ensures that affected consents—whether active or recently expired—will now automatically run until 31 December 2027.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the move provides vital stability during a period of major legislative restructuring.

“For more than 30 years the Resource Management Act 1991 has held New Zealand back,” Bishop said. “It has frustrated farmers and agribusinesses, slowed down housing, delayed infrastructure and imposed huge cost and complexity. With the new planning system progressing through Parliament, it simply isn’t fair to force people into costly replacement consents under the old regime.”

Many consent holders were facing tight renewal deadlines, significant administrative burden, and rising compliance costs. Bishop says the Bill provides “immediate, practical relief”, ensuring no one is disadvantaged while the country moves toward a new national planning framework.

Under-Secretary for RMA Reform Simon Court says the temporary extensions mirror the “plan-stop” applied earlier to council planning documents, ensuring consistency across the transition period.

“We’re effectively doing for consents what we’ve already done for council plans. It prevents wasted time, money and effort on a system that is about to be replaced,” Court said. “At the same time, consent holders who want longer-term certainty still have the option to apply for new consents under transitional processes.”

The legislation is designed to keep the entire planning system stable while new laws—the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill—progress through Parliament. Once enacted, the new planning system is expected to extend most consents even further, to two years after the national transition period ends, which is currently projected to be around 2031.

This shift is intended to reduce regulatory duplication, streamline decision-making, and deliver a modern planning framework that supports growth, housing development, infrastructure expansion, and environmental improvements.

Not all consents are eligible for automatic extension. The amendments exclude:

• Water-related consents that would exceed the 35-year maximum duration

• Wastewater network consents, which remain subject to their own statutory requirements

During the transition, applicants can still pursue new consents, which will be assessed under a modified RMA process. Transitional provisions will include:

• Clear limits on when public notification can be required

• Narrower scope for considering environmental effects

• Immediate introduction of national standards to create consent-free activity pathways

• Procedural consistency principles such as proportionality and efficiency

The Government says these changes are essential to maintaining stability while enabling the shift to a clearer, more predictable, and faster planning system.