Jarrah Construction owner Justin Hesp is concerned about the time taken for Tauranga City Council to process building consents.

Tauranga builders are calling for swift change and accountability from Tauranga City Council as the number of building consents rises in the city.

Jarrah Construction owner Justin Hesp says more accountability is needed from council as consent prices balloon and council's consent processing time lengthens.

'I built my house 10 years ago and the consent was $3500. Ten years on and it's between $14,000 and $16,000 and the timeframes have increased. So from my point of view we are not getting value for money,” says Justin.

'As an employer, if we know our consents are going to be out in 10 to 15 days - you might hang on to guys. Now, when we have consents approaching 50 to 60 days we don't tend to hang on to guys; so it creates a lot of uncertainty for our employees and ourselves.”

City Council Papamoa/Mount Maunganui candidate Clayton Mitchell is backing Justin saying council's current attempts to process building consents is falling well below the mark.

He believes it takes on average up to two months to get a building consent – far beyond the allocated 20 working days.

'For a similar application Napier City Council for example takes on average 12 to 15 days. Council has to work more effectively,” says Clayton.

'It is crazy the industry must wait 60 days on average for a building consent. I have met with councillors and council staff so I can understand what is needed from the council and how consents are processed.”

Priority One statistics show in the last three months residential building consents have sat above 150. In June there were 155 consents lodged, which rose to 208 in July before falling to 164 in August.

Tauranga City Council acting building manager Margaret Batchelar admits council is currently unable to process building consents within an adequate timeframe due to an influx of consents.

As a result council has employed two extra staff looking to alleviate the problem, something which takes time, says Margaret.

'So what that means is that because it looks like the upturn or the buoyant market is here to stay we want to position ourselves so we are able to meet the demand, so we are not taking a little bit longer to process consents,” says Margaret.

'It's certainly not two months. At the moment we were tracking 10 to 15 days over our target timeframe, which is 20 statutory working days.”

To canvas the issue properly, Clayton is sending an email out to builders in an attempt to hear their problems with the building consent process and gather feedback or solutions.

'I want to hear from those who are delayed building, time and again; wanting to start a build but left waiting, still having to pay for staff and bills while consent takes forever.

'If it is a lack of staff on the case at the council or if there are other council's doing better let's learn from them and improve our system.”