Alongside its position on building warranties, CBS’s 2026 Election Manifesto raises a second issue that’s had less attention: whether small, independent builders actually get a say in how the Government’s proposed Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms are shaped.
CBS CEO Carl Taylor told Newstalk ZB that smaller builders who don’t belong to the big industry groups should be helping guide the reform directly, not just receiving the outcome of it. He also raised a second, related concern: keeping builders, and the apprentices coming up behind them, from leaving for Australia.
“We’ve got to make it easier for the small builder to be able to operate independently,” Taylor said, “build houses, not only cost effectively for the industry and for the end consumer, but also make it easier for them to operate.”
What CBS supports in the proposed RMA reforms
CBS’s position on RMA reform is genuinely supportive. In its manifesto, CBS welcomed the Government’s proposed changes, describing simplification of the planning system as essential to increasing housing supply and giving builders more certainty. Taylor has been direct about this: “Our role isn’t to oppose reform, it’s to help shape good reform.”
That’s a notable stance for an organisation representing thousands of small and medium builders. Rather than treating reform as a threat, CBS is positioning itself as a willing partner, provided the builders actually delivering New Zealand’s homes get a genuine seat at the table while the detail is worked out.
Why small builders need a direct voice in reform
The independence gap
Most of New Zealand’s residential building work is carried out by small and medium businesses, many of them outside the two major building associations. CBS’s concern is that reform conversations tend to run through the larger, well-resourced industry bodies, leaving independent builders, who are arguably most affected by planning and consenting friction, without a direct line into the process.
This isn’t a new theme for CBS. The co-operative has previously surveyed its own members on related friction points, including inconsistent council consenting and rising fuel and freight costs, and used that data to push for change. Bringing small builders into the RMA conversation directly is a continuation of that same approach: policy shaped by builder-reported evidence, not assumption.
Keeping builders, and apprentices, in New Zealand
Taylor’s comment about builders “jumping the ditch to Australia” points to a workforce issue that sits alongside the regulatory one. CBS’s manifesto lists “policies that retain skilled builders and apprentices in New Zealand” as one of its seven builder-led priorities, alongside faster consenting and warranty reform.
CBS is in an interesting position to speak to this, having expanded its own co-operative model into Australia over the past year. That gives the organisation a direct, first-hand view of both markets, and its argument is that New Zealand needs to make it easier, not harder, for small builders to operate independently and profitably here, or the industry will keep losing experienced people and apprentices to better conditions across the Tasman.
What the 2026 Election Manifesto asks for
The manifesto’s seven builder-led priorities cover both threads raised in this discussion:
- Faster and nationally consistent building consenting
- Accountability for unnecessary consenting delays
- Full implementation of proportionate liability
- A competitive and independent building warranty market
- Reduced compliance costs and increased productivity
- Policies that retain skilled builders and apprentices in New Zealand
- Greater certainty for small and medium-sized building businesses
CBS describes the document as a blueprint built from what builders are telling the co-operative directly, and is encouraging all political parties to engage with it ahead of the election. The full release is available on CBS’s advocacy page.
What this means for independent builders
If you’re a small or independent building business, the practical takeaway isn’t that anything changes today. It’s that CBS is actively lobbying for your business’s day-to-day reality, consenting delays, compliance costs, and the ability to operate independently without needing to be part of a larger organisation, to be treated as central to how RMA reform is shaped, rather than an afterthought.
It’s also a reminder that workforce retention is being treated as a policy issue in its own right, not just a byproduct of the economy. If keeping builders and apprentices in New Zealand becomes part of the broader reform conversation, that has implications well beyond planning law.