The Government is hitting pause on most council-led plan changes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), to avoid time and money being spent on plans that may end up needing to be reworked or re-notified when the RMA’s replacement comes into effect.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop announced the decision on 16 July 2025, following advice from an Expert Advisory Group that councils’ workload should be reduced to focus on preparing for the new planning system set to replace the RMA by 2027.

The change will be introduced by way of an Amendment Paper to the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill, which the Government expects to become law next month. This amendment will essentially require councils to withdraw their active plan reviews, unless an exemption applies or hearings on them have already started.

This announcement comes amidst broader efforts by the Government to streamline resource management processes and prioritise housing and infrastructure development. To recap, the Government announced the first three of four National Direction packages in late May, with consultation closing on 27 July 2025. Consultation on the fourth National Direction package (Going for Housing Growth) closes on 17 August 2025.

Our comment

This announcement signals a significant “stop work” for councils, particularly on any council-initiated plan changes. It would have been more helpful for councils if early guidance on this announcement had been provided, particularly in terms of how the transition into the new regime will work. Not just councils but submitters who have invested in preparing for hearings, will be impacted.

An unanswered question is what the position of current district and regional plans will be once the new regime takes effect – will they be “deemed” to be plans prepared under the new system, as was signalled earlier this year? If so, our impression is that work done now to update existing plans would still have value as it would make those deemed plans as current and fit for purpose as possible. It would be helpful for all involved in the RMA sector to receive further guidance or announcements from the Government about the intended transitional arrangements as soon as possible, so that resources can be used effectively through this period.

Given the Government’s focus on housing growth and urban development, district plan changes that include amendments to enable development growth and infrastructure are likely to be approved to continue, though they are not automatically exempted and will need Ministerial approval.

We expect many councils will be keen to explore the exemption pathways that have been signalled, as plan changes that are underway are generally borne out of a need to make the plan more fit for purpose, provide for required growth (particularly for older district plans), implement national direction, or achieve all of these outcomes. A desire to see those processes through would be understandable in that context.

Landowners and developers can take comfort in the automatic exemptions for private plan changes and proposed plan changes for natural hazards management. In fact, we may see private plan changes progressed more quickly during this interim period as council resources are freed up temporarily, or where councils can see the benefit of working with stakeholders to initiate change via the private plan change pathway.

Plan-making processes to implement the new national direction provisions will be allowed to continue where the national direction specifies that its implementation (or parts of its implementation) is to occur before 31 December 2027. None of the draft national direction amendments currently out for consultation include this requirement, so we anticipate this may be addressed in the next versions.

Otherwise, plan changes to give effect to the majority of the national direction changes (as currently proposed) cannot proceed without an exemption. Unless an exemption is obtained, then the new national direction changes will only kick in for resource consents, notices of requirement and private plan changes, and will not be given effect to in district and regional plans themselves. One consequence is that the enabling parts of the new national direction will be unable to help non-complying activities to pass the “gateway tests” under section 104D of the RMA, as national policy statements are not a relevant consideration under that provision. You can read our commentary on the national direction reforms below:

New National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards (NPS-NH): A deeper dive

RMA National Direction Reform: A mixed bag for Māori rights and interests

To read an overview of sweeping RMA changes on National Direction reforms, click here.

Special thanks to Samantha Hiew for her assistance in preparing this article.