Latest news with #TonySewell
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Government launches new private building consent authority
It hopes the authority will speed up construction and increase housing supply. Photo: Supplied/ Unsplash - Josh Olalde The government says the country's first privately-owned building consent authority will speed up construction and increase housing supply. The company, Building Consent Approvals, launched on Wednesday morning in Selwyn - the fastest growing district in the country. Building Consent Approvals (BCA) chairperson Tony Sewell said the company will focus on the "low-hanging fruit" of consents for low-risk residential housing by group home builders. Consents will be issued in 10 working days or less for eligible projects, he said. A report from the Auditor-General last year found just three of 67 councils were meeting the 20 day statutory time frame to process consents. The cost of using BCA was sitting "slightly above some councils and below others", Sewell said, but it was the promise of a swift turnaround that sets it apart. BCA received approval in 2024 to issue consents, and gained registration from the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment earlier this year. Chairperson Tony Sewell said it had been a "bit of a journey" to get to this stage. "The [Building] Act said in 2004 you could do it. We started pushing the button last year, did a lot of research and work, we got the first level of approval in October. The registration process with MBIE [Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] was a tough haul but it needed to be." BCA aims to complete about a third of all building inspections remotely, issuing Code of Compliance certificates and consents for low-risk replicated (pre-approved) designs within two working days. Working with the low-risk residential bulk house group builders will free up councils to cover more complex consent applications, he said. "Some people might say we're going for the low-hanging fruit - that is a fact. We see that as our opportunity and there's plenty of it, so lets start with what we can do." The process to become an authority required the company to meet strict accreditation and registration requirements. It will have to follow the same regulations as council authorities, which means the risk to the consumer is "consistent" whether their consent is processed by the company or a council. The company will be subject to three monthly audits, at least initially. "I fully support that," Sewell said. "We think that part of the process is really important to give the industry the confidence that we're right on top if it." The company will have little tolerance for incorrect or incomplete paperwork holding up timeframes. "Your documentation will be correct if you want us to process it properly, and we will help you to make it correct." "I think there's zero tolerance for the people who are constantly blaming the consenting authority - its not always their fault. The designers need to get it right and the builders need to get it right when they're doing the work." BCA would have an advantage over councils in the ability to refuse to deal with companies that consistently failed to produce the correct documentation, but the intention was to work with and educate the sector, Sewell said. The company aimed to complete 30 percent of building inspectors remotely . The swiftly growing Selwyn District had been required to innovate to speed up its own processes over the years, mayor Sam Broughton said. "Fifteen years ago we developed the first digital building platform for councils, its now used right around the country," as well as methods of speeding up housing development consenting, he said. The nature of the change may mean council processing times increase, Broughton said. "That's one of the things people might see - if many of the simple consents move away from councils and we've only got the complex ones, the average processing time will start to increase. "If we lose lots of the two or three day processes and are left with all the 21 or 22 day processes, the average will lift." Minister for the South Island James Meager said the move will make it easier and cheaper to build, ultimately making housing more affordable. The consenting system hadn't been working as well as it could, even though many councils had worked hard to improve, Meager said. The newly registered private company will bring "a little bit of competitive tension" to the councils to make sure they improve, he said. He was confident the oversight and auditing in place meant the consents would be of a high standard. Minister for the South Island James Meager said the move will make it easier and cheaper to build. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Construction industry consultant Mike Blackburn said an independent consent authority is good news for the industry. "Councils have obviously been under pressure over the last couple of years with the number of building consents and the time it take to process applications." In 2020, some councils were taking 60 or 70 days to process consents, and were forced to outsourcing some aspects of the work to other councils or companies. "There's only so many trained compliance officers at any one time." He said BCA would also be able to offer a uniform approach regardless of where the application was made. "One of the biggest frustrations I hear from builders is the inconsistency across various councils when they're applying for consents and inspections. Being able to deal with one company across multiple areas is going to be a real advantage. 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RNZ News
27-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Private company to process building consents
The country's first private business accredited to issue building consents is being officially registered today - promising to process building consents in just 10 days. But what projects will it work on, and what consumer protections are in place if things go wrong? Building Consent Approvals today gets its registration from Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. The company expects to begin processing consents in June and it says its focus will be on the big developers, with single-storey houses. Councils currently issue building consents, and do so when they are reasonably confident the proposed work will meet the requirements of the Building Code. Just three of 67 councils were meeting a 20-day statutory time frame expected of them, according to an Audditor-General report last year. The new company's chair Tony Sewell, who's had a 50-year career in the building industry, says the new authority has secured full civil liability for their consenting practice. Photo: Supplied/ Unsplash - Josh Olalde
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Young white men do have problems, but they need to man up
Last weekend I was on a panel at the Oxford Literary Festival (sponsored by The Telegraph, if you please) and the topic was the Southport riots. In considering the subject, the excellent Tony Sewell, aka the Lord Sewell of Sanderstead, aired the view that one big cause of social unrest in Britain is that white working class boys are left behind. They're bottom of the barrel, whether in school, higher education prospects, health, happiness, or projected income. Sewell, the chair of the 2021 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, knows the stats well. His report found that 'systemic racism' is not what lies behind disparities in outcome in Britain: it's class, and poor white youth, mostly boys, do by far the worst. This wasn't the first time the topic of struggling working class white boys hit the headlines. There has long been a panic about the effect that feminism, and more recently MeToo, and the discourse of 'toxic' masculinity have had on their psyches, leaving them no choice but to turn to that barbarian Andrew Tate in droves. The topic has once more caught fire since Netflix's Adolescence came out, the miniseries about an English teenage (white, working class) boy accused of the murder of a female classmate. So revered is Adolescence as a – perhaps the – document for our times that Keir Starmer has on multiple occasions intoned reference to it in Parliament, mistakenly and hilariously calling it a documentary. It has provoked anti-woke fury among those who believe that a white boy is the fall guy in a story of violence by another ethnic group; it is always safe, they point out, to blame a white cisgendered heterosexual male. And it has provoked that whiny mixture of faux indignation and performative sentimentalism among those who feel, as their sons turn to Tate (or know boys who do), that they must hold their nose and take seriously the idea that perhaps this squashed, left-out, derided demographic – once the backbone of the Empire – has been given a raw deal since in the decades since wokeness began its institutional creep. Despite its zeitgeistiness, I have refused to watch Adolescence. I may be among the last few, at least in the chattering classes, who have not tuned in. There are several reasons for my refusal. One is that the miniseries is obviously far too depressing. When I turn on a streaming platform these days, I want something jollier, something more along the lines of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City or The White Lotus. The second is that, while I recognise that this group is suffering, I simply don't feel inclined to indulge in either the huge pity party, or the jamboree of toxic-masculinity-awareness-raising, that Adolescence has inspired. Yes, masculinity is in crisis, but the truth is that masculinity has always been in crisis – ask any social historian. And as with all moments of media-friendly crises of masculinity, we find ourselves talking about men like they are helpless little flowers. It is odd. Working-class white boys are found to be treated badly, and therefore to do badly and act badly. One of the big issues cited is that they don't know their worth or purpose anymore in a society constantly calling them 'toxic'. Very sad, but it is possible to get over such slights and thrive anyway. Women faced derision for almost all of history for simply being women – they were seen as neurotic, nervous, intellectually inferior, limited to backbreaking domestic labour and breeding. Any who tried to go beyond this were stymied, ridiculed and often simply barred. Of course there was no educational encouragement or even guaranteed access, unlike that enjoyed by every single child in Britain today. And it was completely acceptable for husbands to beat or rape wives seen as intransigent, or just irritatingly alive. And still women by and large obeyed the law and tried to get on. Some sniping about 'toxic masculinity' is hardly a life sentence. And if boys are small men, and men are meant to be tough (which is why so many are frustrated now, we are told, in this 'feminised' society) can't they hold strong even in the face of adversity? The idea that if we don't give them all a big cultural and social hug they'll commit violence and become arsonists and misogynists isn't good enough. Why can't we expect them to be decent, hardworking people … even in tough circumstances? It might be good for them, even though we'd immediately be told we are crushing them with 'unrealistic expectations'. Yes, young white men need help and encouragement and resources and schemes and mentorships and to not be told they are worthless. But they are not entirely victims either. They do have a bit of agency; they do have their own will. I don't wish the draft on anybody's son but it does occur to one that in days gone by, the majority of these rootless boys without obvious or easy prospects, held back by socioeconomic class (in far more rigid, brutal times) would have donned a uniform and gone off to war. Many would have died, which is a tragedy that is every parent's worst nightmare. For many, though, it was the making of them: they were scalded into men, they tasted valour, heroism and – for the more thuggish – the satisfaction of the appetite for brute force and combat, sanctioned by the state. Let Britain be saved from a war like those that our 20th-century forefathers and mothers experienced. May conscription never be necessary again. But let us find some way to get our ne'er-do-wells, stragglers and miserable young men into something bigger than themselves, to stop them gravitating to all that is lower, nastier and meaner. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Young white men do have problems, but they need to man up
Last weekend I was on a panel at the Oxford Literary Festival (sponsored by The Telegraph, if you please) and the topic was the Southport riots. In considering the subject, the excellent Tony Sewell, aka the Lord Sewell of Sanderstead, aired the view that one big cause of social unrest in Britain is that white working class boys are left behind. They're bottom of the barrel, whether in school, higher education prospects, health, happiness, or projected income. Sewell, the chair of the 2021 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, knows the stats well. His report found that 'systemic racism' is not what lies behind disparities in outcome in Britain: it's class, and poor white youth, mostly boys, do by far the worst. This wasn't the first time the topic of struggling working class white boys hit the headlines. There has long been a panic about the effect that feminism, and more recently MeToo, and the discourse of 'toxic' masculinity have had on their psyches, leaving them no choice but to turn to that barbarian Andrew Tate in droves. The topic has once more caught fire since Netflix's Adolescence came out, the miniseries about an English teenage (white, working class) boy accused of the murder of a female classmate. So revered is Adolescence as a – perhaps the – document for our times that Keir Starmer has on multiple occasions intoned reference to it in Parliament, mistakenly and hilariously calling it a documentary. It has provoked anti-woke fury among those who believe that a white boy is the fall guy in a story of violence by another ethnic group; it is always safe, they point out, to blame a white cisgendered heterosexual male. And it has provoked that whiny mixture of faux indignation and performative sentimentalism among those who feel, as their sons turn to Tate (or know boys who do), that they must hold their nose and take seriously the idea that perhaps this squashed, left-out, derided demographic – once the backbone of the Empire – has been given a raw deal since in the decades since wokeness began its institutional creep. Despite its zeitgeistiness, I have refused to watch Adolescence. I may be among the last few, at least in the chattering classes, who have not tuned in. There are several reasons for my refusal. One is that the miniseries is obviously far too depressing. When I turn on a streaming platform these days, I want something jollier, something more along the lines of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City or The White Lotus. The second is that, while I recognise that this group is suffering, I simply don't feel inclined to indulge in either the huge pity party, or the jamboree of toxic-masculinity-awareness-raising, that Adolescence has inspired. Yes, masculinity is in crisis, but the truth is that masculinity has always been in crisis – ask any social historian. And as with all moments of media-friendly crises of masculinity, we find ourselves talking about men like they are helpless little flowers. It is odd. Working-class white boys are found to be treated badly, and therefore to do badly and act badly. One of the big issues cited is that they don't know their worth or purpose anymore in a society constantly calling them 'toxic'. Very sad, but it is possible to get over such slights and thrive anyway. Women faced derision for almost all of history for simply being women – they were seen as neurotic, nervous, intellectually inferior, limited to backbreaking domestic labour and breeding. Any who tried to go beyond this were stymied, ridiculed and often simply barred. Of course there was no educational encouragement or even guaranteed access, unlike that enjoyed by every single child in Britain today. And it was completely acceptable for husbands to beat or rape wives seen as intransigent, or just irritatingly alive. And still women by and large obeyed the law and tried to get on. Some sniping about ' toxic masculinity ' is hardly a life sentence. And if boys are small men, and men are meant to be tough (which is why so many are frustrated now, we are told, in this 'feminised' society) can't they hold strong even in the face of adversity? The idea that if we don't give them all a big cultural and social hug they'll commit violence and become arsonists and misogynists isn't good enough. Why can't we expect them to be decent, hardworking people … even in tough circumstances? It might be good for them, even though we'd immediately be told we are crushing them with 'unrealistic expectations'. Yes, young white men need help and encouragement and resources and schemes and mentorships and to not be told they are worthless. But they are not entirely victims either. They do have a bit of agency; they do have their own will. I don't wish the draft on anybody's son but it does occur to one that in days gone by, the majority of these rootless boys without obvious or easy prospects, held back by socioeconomic class (in far more rigid, brutal times) would have donned a uniform and gone off to war. Many would have died, which is a tragedy that is every parent's worst nightmare. For many, though, it was the making of them: they were scalded into men, they tasted valour, heroism and – for the more thuggish – the satisfaction of the appetite for brute force and combat, sanctioned by the state. Let Britain be saved from a war like those that our 20th-century forefathers and mothers experienced. May conscription never be necessary again. But let us find some way to get our ne'er-do-wells, stragglers and miserable young men into something bigger than themselves, to stop them gravitating to all that is lower, nastier and meaner.
