The Building and Housing Minister has suggested there may be extra money for assessing and strengthening key government buildings.
Nick Smith says more money may be available to assess quake-prone Government buildings. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Changes to earthquake strengthening legislation announced yesterday by Nick Smith divided the country into high, medium and low earthquake risk areas.
Building owners in medium and low risk areas have 25 and 35 years respectively to complete strengthening work. But those in high risk areas get no reprieve and will still be required to strengthen their buildings within 15 years.
The changes also include halving the period education and emergency buildings have to assess and strengthen their buildings.
The new approach reduces the number of building assessments from 500,000 to 30000 and puts the cost at $777 million.
Dr Smith said he could not say how much these changes would cost the Government as the estimates were crude and until councils began implementing the changes, the Government would not have a clear idea about the size and scale of the problem.
"The estimates we have at this point are crude. They are based over the full population of buildings, rather than being able to cut it specifically down into emergency buildings, education and health buildings.
"This is over a ten year programme, and as we get the engineering assessments on those buildings required under this bill, we're then going to be able to make the appropriations to those ministries to ensure the buildings meet those timetables," he said.
The select committee is considering the bill and will report back to Parliament in July with the bill expected to be before the house later this year.
Dr Smith said the 2004 Building Act was the first law to tackle earthquake standards in existing buildings. But he said it was very vague.
"All it does is require councils to have a policy about earthquake prone buildings. That's being very broadly interpreted from some councils doing nothing, some doing very little and others - like Wellington City - that have made significant steps towards getting a better idea of their own building stock," he said.
Dr Smith said the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission was very critical of that policy because there was very widespread practice, but not much progress being made.
A member of the property council, Ian Cassels, meanwhile has said the Government needs to stop delaying action over quake-vulnerable buildings.
He said the government was simply delaying fixing the problem and hoping there was not a major earthquake in the meantime.
Mayor welcomes Govt quake move
Dunedin's mayor is welcoming the Government's move to give the city a reprieve from earthquake strengthening its buildings.
Some cities now have an extra 20 years to bring their quake prone buildings up to scratch under new legislation.
At present, all building owners have 15 years to carry out strengthening work.
A new law being brought in means places deemed low risk will instead have 35 years to do the repairs.
But some smaller towns with a large number of heritage buildings in high-risk areas have had no reprieve.
Dunedin was one city that would now be considered low risk.
Mr Cull said the present law was a one size fits all approach that would not work.
Waitaki District Gary Kircher said the new timeframe was far more realistic, as it gives everyone more time.
Mr Kircher said people's lives must be put before buildings, but in low-risk areas, the risk must be put in context.
He said without ignoring the lives lost in the Canterbury earthquakes, the district does not want a situation where the main streets and communities were gutted.
Fire Service spends $50m on quake strengthening
The Fire Service says it is spending up to $50 million a year to bring its 500 buildings up to earthquake standard.
The service's chief executive, Paul Baxter said work to improve its buildings began almost a decade ago, but the grading would help prioritise spending.
Mr Baxter said the service had not received extra government funding for the upgrades.