Avanzar Consulting

Published ahead of NZPIC26 | Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington | 25–27 March 2026

As planners, we’ve been navigating the changing hoops of Resource Management Act 1991 amendments for over three decades.  Less than 3 years ago we were starting to grapple with the Natural & Built Environment Act, only to discover it vanished faster than this years’ kiwi summer. Now another system rises like a phoenix from its ashes so the NZPI Conference in Wellington this month could not come at a more pivotal time.

On 9 December 2025, the Government introduced two landmark Bills to Parliament that will together repeal and replace the RMA: the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill. Both are intended to be passed into law by mid-2026. Whether the system genuinely delivers on its promise — faster, simpler, better for housing and infrastructure — is the question animating much of the discussion at this year’s conference.

Two Bills, One System

The two Bills are designed to work in tandem, each addressing a distinct domain:

The Natural Environment Bill (NEB) establishes a framework for the use, protection and enhancement of the natural environment — covering land, water, air, soil, minerals, energy, plants, animals and their habitats.

The Planning Bill establishes a framework for planning and regulating the use, development and enjoyment of land. It operates with a deliberately narrower scope of effects than the RMA.

Unlike the architectural intent of their predecessor, I think the idea of splitting the domains is sound, but the most pressing question is whether the transition will deliver the promise, and on what timeline.

A Race Against the Clock: The Transitional Challenge

The legislative timetable is ambitious to a degree that should concern everyone working in the sector. Both Bills are expected to receive Royal Assent by mid-2026. The first tranche of national instruments — standardised zones, overlays, and environmental limits — must follow by the end of 2026, with a second tranche in mid-2027. Councils are then expected to prepare combined regional plans integrating the regional spatial plan, natural environment plan, and land-use plan within timeframes that are still being determined.

For councils, the challenge is acute. The capability and resourcing required to do this well is significant — and with much policy work halted last year, there is genuine concern across local government that the pace being demanded does not reflect the reality of what councils can deliver.

For developers and infrastructure providers, the transitional period creates its own risks. During the window between the RMA’s repeal and the new system bedding in, there will be questions about how existing consents, designations, and plan provisions operate, what rules apply to applications lodged mid-transition, and how new simplified consent categories interact with legacy instruments. Legal uncertainty during a period intended to speed things up has the potential to achieve exactly the opposite.

For communities, the shift of engagement from the consenting stage to the plan-making stage is a cultural shift that may take years to cement.  Under the new system, the moment for public input moves upstream — to the development of combined plans — but those plans will not exist for years. In the interim, the mechanisms for meaningful community participation are less clear, and there is a real risk that the transition period leaves some voices further from the process than before.

For practitioners, the compressed timeline between Royal Assent and the release of national instruments means we will be advising clients under a framework whose critical content — zones, overlays, thresholds — will not yet exist. This is not an abstraction: applications will be lodged, decisions will need to be made, and advice will need to be given in conditions of material legal uncertainty.

Infrastructure and Urban Growth: Will This Time Be Different?

The headline promise of this reform is that it will unlock housing supply and enable the infrastructure needed to support urban growth. It is a promise we have heard before. Several speakers at this year’s conference are addressing this directly — and the emerging consensus is cautious.

A new planning act, however well-designed, does not resolve the fiscal pressures that prevent councils from funding growth infrastructure, and does not close the gap between the development contributions councils can charge and the true cost of the infrastructure new development requires.

Infrastructure sequencing remains the unresolved problem. As someone whose worked in the realm of spatial planning overseas it is supposed to different from how the land use function is performed now. The new system’s emphasis on regional spatial plans as the integrating document is theoretically correct — but how will they integrate with development coming out through the fast-tracking consenting process? 

The honest answer to whether this reform will resolve the infrastructure and urban growth deficit is: it depends on what happens outside the legislation. Planning reform is a necessary but not a sufficient condition. The developers and infrastructure providers in the room at NZPIC26 know this. So do the councils. The conversation worth having — and the one several conference speakers are intending to address — is about what changes in funding, governance, and institutional coordination need to accompany the new Acts if we want a different outcome going forward.

The Conversation Starts in Wellington

This is precisely why NZPIC26 matters so much. With the Ministry for the Environment actively participating in this year’s conference, and politicians from both sides of the House confirmed for an expanded Political Panel, there has never been a better moment for planners to engage directly with those shaping this new system.

We will be at the Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre, 25–27 March — and we’d love to connect. Whether you’re grappling with how to prepare your council for the transition, trying to understand the implications for your practice, or wanting to engage with the infrastructure and urban growth questions being debated at the conference, come and find us.

The system is changing. The transition will be hard no matter what but its how we fine tune it. And the conversation about whether the new legislation delivers what it promises starts right here, in the capital, this month. Hamish / Avanzar is attending NZPIC26 in Wellington, 25–27 March 2026. Get in touch to arrange a meeting or catch us at the conference