Better planning for a better New Zealand

The Government is replacing the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with a new planning system that delivers on its commitment to unlock infrastructure and housing development, support New Zealand’s primary industries and drive significant growth while protecting what is important.

Last updated: 25 August 2025

A system that upholds Treaty settlements and gives decision-makers clear expectations about how to honour them.
Certainty about how Māori interests and places of significance are recognised and provided for throughout the system.
Strong pathways for Māori participation in national direction, regional plans and decisions that affect land and water.
Better protection for sites of significance and better support for developing and protecting Māori land.

The New Planning System: What it means for Māori interests and Treaty settlements

What it means for managing indigenous biodiversity and the environment

Central and local government will have to set binding environmental limits for air, freshwater, coastal water, land and soils, and indigenous biodiversity.
Spatial planning will help councils and communities map out where development and protection should happen.
Indigenous biodiversity will be protected through:
- a goal of no net loss for indigenous biodiversity
- a compulsory ecosystem health limit for indigenous biodiversity
- nationally consistent rules and standards for how indigenous biodiversity is managed and protected.

The New Planning System: Protecting the Environment

What it means for homeowners and residential developers

A planning system that supports the Kiwi dream of improving your home or building a new one without unnecessary cost or delay.
Simple and consistent rules that make it easier to renovate, extend or build, with fewer consents needed for everyday projects.
Spatial plans that ensure communities have room to grow, with more choice about where people can live close to jobs, services and opportunity.
Heritage protection that focuses on places of genuine value while giving families the flexibility to adapt their homes for modern life.

The New Planning System: Making it easier to build and renovate your home

The New Planning System: Simplifying residential development

What it means for the infrastructure sector, including renewable energy

Certainty for the people building the roads, pipes, rail and energy systems that keep New Zealand moving.
Faster decisions and fewer avoidable hurdles so major projects can get underway sooner and deliver benefits earlier.
Early corridor protection and strong national direction so long-term infrastructure can be planned and delivered with confidence.
Consistent rules across the country that reduce cost, support innovation and give investors the certainty they need.

The New Planning System: Delivering the infrastructure we need

What it means for farmers and growers

A system that backs our farmers to produce world-class food and fibre for New Zealand and the world, while caring for the land.
Regulation that focuses on real environmental risks, not minor or low-impact activity, so farmers can spend more time on the land and less time in paperwork.
Clear, consistent national rules that support long-term investment and give confidence to grow thriving rural businesses.
Fair and practical relief when planning controls limit how land can be used, acknowledging the real economic and personal impact on farming families.

The New Planning System: Backing our primary sector

The New Planning System: Increasing certainty for the marine sector

What it means for local government

Reduced costs of operating the system.
Fewer plans, fewer consent categories, and fewer consents overall.
Greater use of standardisation (like zoning), making planning and consenting much simpler and clearer for councils to implement and will reduce chances for conflict and litigation
A new Planning Tribunal offering lower cost and faster ways for councils to resolve disputes.

The New Planning System: Role of local government

What it means for landowners whose properties are significantly impacted by planning controls

The Bills provide new ways to balance planning controls, which benefit the wider community (eg, environmental protection), while managing the impacts to landowners who have these protections placed on their property. There are two ways this can happen:

Mandatory regulatory relief will require councils to provide relief when new rules for certain protections impose significant burdens on landowners.
Voluntary incentives, which will empower councils to encourage behaviour change by providing incentives for particular activities.

The New Planning System: Regulatory relief in the new planning system

Resource consents due to expire before 31 December 2027 will automatically receive a new expiry date of 31 December 2027.
Consents that have recently expired and where an application for a replacement consent has been made under section 124 of the RMA but not yet determined, are reinstated and extended until 31 December 2027.
Consent holders can choose to either withdraw their application, or continue processing of their replacement application under the RMA.

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill

What it means for people who work in the system

Councils and communities will work with a smaller number of plans.
Many activities will be permitted or streamlined under national standards, reducing the need for consents.
Stronger national direction will mean more certainty for decision-making.
Goals and standards can’t be revisited at every decision-making stage.
Standard templates, definitions, and guidance mean councils are working from the same playbook.
The system will be rolled out in stages, with guidance and support for those implementing the changes.

The New Planning System: Stronger direction and a plan for getting there

The Government is taking a phased approach to the reform of the resource management system.

Phase One

Phase One was the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act. This was completed in December 2023.

Read the Minister’s speech to the New Zealand Planning Institute conference on 22 March 2024 [Beehive website].

Read the proactively released Cabinet minute and Cabinet paper on the RM Reform roadmap from 22 March 2024.

Phase Two

Fast-track Approvals Act

Phase Two started with the introduction of the Fast-track Approvals Bill. The Bill was introduced to Parliament in March 2024, before going to the Environment Select Committee for scrutiny. It passed its final readings in Parliament and became law in December 2024.

The Fast-track Approvals Act's purpose is to deliver infrastructure and other development projects with significant regional or national benefits.

The Act’s one-stop-shop approach consolidates and speeds up the multiple approval processes under different legislation which are typically required for large and/or complex projects.

A broad range of projects will have access to the fast-track process if they meet eligibility criteria. Projects may include infrastructure, housing, resource extraction, aquaculture, renewable energy, and other developments.

The Act proposes a number of protections for Treaty settlements, other arrangements and Māori rights and interests.

First resource management amendment Bill passed

The Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024 was introduced to Parliament in May 2024 and came into force on 25 October 2024.

The Act amends the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and several national direction instruments.   

The Act has nine key changes that:

Exclude the hierarchy of obligations in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) from resource consenting while a review and replacement of the NPS-FM is undertaken.
Repeal the low slope map and associated requirements from stock exclusion regulations.
Repeal the permitted and restricted discretionary activity regulations and associated conditions for intensive winter grazing from the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F) and replaces these with new regulations for setbacks from waterways and critical source areas
Align the provisions for coal mining with other mineral extraction activities under the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB), NPS-FM and NES-F.
Suspend for three years requirements under the NPS-IB for councils to identify new Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) and include them in district plans. The Bill also extends some SNA implementation timeframes.
Speed up and simplify the process for preparing and amending national direction, including national environmental standards, national planning standards, national policy statements and the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement.
Clarify councils’ ability to consent discharges that would result in significant adverse effects, provided receiving waters are already subject to such effects, and conditions reduce effects over time.
Pause the rollout of freshwater farm plans until work to improve the system is finalised. 
Restrict notification of freshwater planning instruments (regional policy statements and plans that give effect to the NPS-FM 2020) until a new NPS-FM takes effect or 31 December 2025. This applies from 22 October 2024.

Read the Primary Production Select Committee report on the Bill [New Zealand Parliament website]

Earlier announcements on the Bill

Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (opens in new window) [New Zealand Legislation website] 

First amendment Bill introduced to Parliament (23 May 2024) (opens in new window) [Beehive website]

Urgent changes to system through first RMA amendment Bill (23 April 2024) (opens in new window) [Beehive website]

Second resource management amendment Bill passed

The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament in December 2024 and passed into law on 20 August 2025.

The Act can be grouped into five themes:

the infrastructure and energy package
the housing package
the farming and primary sector package
the natural hazards and emergencies package
the system improvements package.

See more about the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act 2025 including fact sheets and guidance on the various changes.

This Act will be supported by further changes to national direction instruments through the national direction programme.

National direction programme

In March 2025, the Government confirmed a refocused package of national direction under the RMA. This would be progressed as part of Phase 2, with a focus on proposals that have an immediate effect on the resource management system while Phase 3 is progressed.

Proposals to update national direction are open for consultation and are grouped into four packages.

Packages 1 and 2

Package 1 includes proposals to prepare and amend national direction instruments in infrastructure and development, while package 2 is focused on the primary sector. These proposals include:

new national direction for infrastructure, granny flats (minor residential units), papakāinga, and natural hazards
amendments to national direction for: renewable electricity generation, electricity transmission, distribution and associated activities, telecommunication facilities, freshwater, highly productive land, stock exclusion, marine aquaculture, and commercial forestry
amendments to the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement
amendments to quarrying and mining provisions in national direction for freshwater, indigenous biodiversity and highly productive land.

Package 3

This includes options to amend national direction for freshwater.

Package 4

This aims to test how the first pillar of the Going for Housing Growth programme could fit into the new planning system.

Consultation for the first three packages ran from 29 May to 27 July 2025. Consultation on package 4 ran from 18 June to 17 August 2025.

See package 1 & 2 consultation.

See package 3 consultation.

See package 4 consultation.

Read the interim regulatory impact statements on updating the RMA.

Phase Three

Replacing the RMA

In March 2024, Cabinet agreed that the following objectives would be used to guide work to replace the RMA:

Make it easier to get things done by:

unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth
enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure for the future, including doubling renewable energy
enabling primary sector growth and development (including aquaculture, forestry, pastoral farming, horticulture, and mining)
while also:
- safeguarding the natural environment and human health
- adapting to the effects of climate change and reducing the risks from natural hazards
- improving regulatory quality in the resource management system
- upholding Treaty of Waitangi settlements and other related arrangements.

Legislative design principles

Cabinet also agreed that the following principles would be used to guide the development of proposals to replace the RMA:

Narrow the scope of the effects the resource management system controls.
Establish two Acts with clear and distinct purposes – one to manage environmental effects arising from activities and another to enable urban development and infrastructure.
Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed.
Provide for greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and to simplify council plans, so that standard-complying activity cannot be subjected to a consent requirement.
Shift the system focus from consenting before works are undertaken to strengthened compliance monitoring and enforcement.
Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure.
Achieve efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils.
Provide for rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property-owners and councils, with a Planning Tribunal (or equivalent) providing an accountablity mechanism.
Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations.
Provide faster, cheaper and less litigious processes within shorter, less complex and more accessible legislation.

Expert Advisory Group

In September 2024, the Government established an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) to prepare a blueprint for legislation to replace the RMA based on the legislative design principles.

Read the EAG’s terms of reference.

The group was made up of experts with relevant technical knowledge covering subjects, including resource management law, planning and te ao Māori.

Read the RM Reform Expert Advisory Group members' biographies (opens in new window).

In February 2025, the EAG provided a package of 21 key recommendations in the form of a written report.

Read the EAG’s blueprint report.

Given the short time available for what was a substantial task, the EAG had to limit its advice to what it considered to be the most significant aspects of the proposed replacement legislation.

It was also unable to discuss some issues in sufficient depth to reach consensus. For that reason, some recommendations were made by majority. Although Paul Melville was a member of the EAG, he is recorded as having his own view.

Read the minority report.

Cabinet decisions

In March 2025, Cabinet agreed:

the EAG’s blueprint report provided a broadly workable basis to start developing new legislation to replace the RMA
to proceed with the development of two new Acts – a Planning Act and a Natural Environment Act – with Bills to be introduced in Parliament in 2025
key features of the new planning system that were broadly aligned with the EAG’s recommendations
to delegate authority to the Minister and Under-Secretary Responsible for RMA Reform to make further policy decisions on the proposed legislation in consultation with other ministers where relevant to their portfolios.

Read the cabinet paper, minute and regulatory impact statement on replacing the Resource Management Act 1991 – Approach to development of new legislation.

On 1 December 2025, Cabinet agreed to introduce the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill in Parliament before the end of 2025.

Read the cabinet paper, minute and the supplementary analysis report for further decisions on replacing the Resource Management Act 1991.

Introduction of Bills

In December 2025, the Government introduced a Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill in Parliament.

The Government aims to pass the Bills into law in 2026.

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill

In December 2025, the Government introduced an RMA amendment Bill that:

automatically extends most resource consents that would otherwise expire before 31 December 2027 until that date
reinstates and extends until 31 December 2027 recently expired consents where an application has been made but not yet determined.

Resource management system

Pūtaiao Facts and Science

He mahi ka taea e koe What you can do

Ā mātou mahi What government is doing

Te ao Māori The Māori world

Ngā Ture Acts and regulations

Pūtaiao Facts and Science

He mahi ka taea e koe What you can do

Ā mātou mahi What government is doing

Te ao Māori The Māori world

Ngā Ture Acts and regulations

Better planning for a better New Zealand

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The new system

New Zealand’s planning system is broken

Two Bills with clear purposes

Legislation that provides clarity and certainty

Goals limit what the system can look at and decide on

Resetting what is regulated

Stronger national instruments

Standardised plans for regions

More standardised rules

Fewer and quicker consents and permits

Protecting the environment

Relief will be accessible when some land use is restricted

Enforcing rules more consistently

Māori interests and the Treaty of Waitangi

Improving system performance

Legislative and transition timelines

More information

Economic reports

Minister media releases

Changes for key sectors

What it means for Māori interests and Treaty settlements

What it means for managing indigenous biodiversity and the environment

What it means for homeowners and residential developers

What it means for the infrastructure sector, including renewable energy

What it means for farmers and growers

What it means for local government

What it means for landowners whose properties are significantly impacted by planning controls

What it means for existing consent holders

What it means for people who work in the system

A phased approach to resource management reform

Phase One

Phase Two

Fast-track Approvals Act

First resource management amendment Bill passed

Earlier announcements on the Bill

Second resource management amendment Bill passed

National direction programme

Packages 1 and 2

Package 3

Package 4

Phase Three

Replacing the RMA

Legislative design principles

Expert Advisory Group

Cabinet decisions

Introduction of Bills

Resource Management (Duration of Consents) Amendment Bill

Related pages