Goodbye RMA, hello Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill

Tuesday, 9 December 2025

It’s been the bane of developers, councils, builders, contractors, farmers, investors and politicians for decades. But will the latest RMA replacement attempt last the distance? Lloyd Burr takes a look.

Reform of the much-maligned Resource Management Act 1991 has been described as a rollercoaster, a merry-go-round, and Groundhog Day.

That’s because so many governments over the past few decades have tried to reform or replace it and they’ve failed. John Key’s National tried twice but its coalition partners kiboshed it.

Labour’s majority government between 2020-2023 did manage to repeal the RMA and replace it with two new pieces of legislation: the Natural and Built Environment Act (NBEA) and the Spatial Planning Act (SPA).

But those didn’t last long and were repealed by the current coalition government which brought the RMA back from the dead while they promised to find another fix.

That fix has finally been unveiled today and, like Labour’s attempt, the RMA has been split into two pieces of legislation: The Planning Bill, and Natural Environment Bill.

Let’s break the changes down.

Overview

The Planning Bill is 452 pages long and aims to enable development and regulate land use.

The Natural Environment Bill is 292 pages long and aims to manage resource impacts and protect the environment.

Both bills are expected to be passed into law by the middle of 2026, but there will be urgent law changes today to provide a transitional pathway.

There will be a transition period during which consents currently going through the RMA process will be extended by two years with the hope they’ll all be done by 2031.

New applications during the transition period will follow a new transitional RMA process, which contains some elements of the new system.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop claims the changes will boost GDP by $3.1 billion every year, largely due to half of the consents and permits that are needed under the RMA not being needed under the new system.

The biggest changes

• Councils must provide relief - including possible financial relief - when imposing restrictions or rules on private properties around heritage and nature, or that have a big impact on land use.

• A new centrally managed digital planning, consenting, and compliance platform called “ePlan”. Regional Policy Statements will be scrapped entirely.

• Fewer consents due to fewer activity categories, and fewer activities requiring a consent.

• Faster, combined regional plans. There are more than 100 different plans across the country’s councils. These will be merged to just 17 to make it easier, no matter where people live.

• 30-year spatial plans will be developed for infrastructure corridors.

• Enable competitive urban land markets to meet current and expected demand.

• More nationally-set policy, including national standards and standardisation to speed up processes.

• Clarity over who must be consulted, including iwi.

• A new Planning Tribunal will be established for faster conflict resolution. It will provide a “clearing house” for those who challenge council decisions.

• A centralised enforcement of environmental protections.

What will be easier?

Pretty much everything, according to Bishop.

Whether it’s building a deck in your backyard, building a massive wind farm, expanding a port’s wharf, or small changes to properties like replacing garages - it will be much easier, faster, and cheaper.

There will no longer be restrictions on which way house doors can face, or which way they open, what colour they are, or which wall the television is mounted on.

“Which way your door opens or where it’s located is a big decision, but it’s a decision for the homeowner, not the council or its bureaucrats,” Bishop says.

Council plans can take up to seven years to change. Bishop says the standardisation of process across the country means that’ll be reduced to two years.

What the minister says

“The RMA of 1991 is the root cause of our housing crisis. It’s tied houses and farmers up in red tape and hasn’t even protected the environment,” he told those gathered in the Beehive’s Banquet Hall.

“This is a once-in-a-generation shift. It will radically change the way we build houses and infrastructure in our country. At the moment, we spend the equivalent of Transmission Gully consenting infrastructure. It’s insane,” he says.

“We are not a small country by landmass. But we have some of the highest house prices in the OECD. Report after report has laid that at the door of the RMA.

“The size of the prize is substantial. What we unlock from these changes are large. $13.2b in compliance cost over 30 years.

“Some will say these reforms go too far. But people need to remember the costs of saying ‘no’. Economic growth matters and people who say it doesn’t are wrong. It matters,” Bishop says.

What about Treaty Settlements?

Bishop says nothing changes when it comes to upholding Treaty Settlements. The general provisions in the current RMA will be transferred to the new laws.