Infrastructure for Growth

Investing in critical projects is just part of the Government’s strategy to improve New Zealand’s infrastructure to support growth.

Delivering infrastructure has become overly complex and inefficient in New Zealand, limiting productivity growth and impacting on living standards. The Government is committed to turning this around with ambitious system changes. These include increasing the quality and speeding up the pace of construction projects through better planning, changes to consenting, and by improving funding and financing structures.

Since February, when the Going For Growth agenda was unveiled, the Government has delivered a range of infrastructure actions, including:

• The draft National Infrastructure Plan, which will provide investors and businesses with confidence and encourage greater investment in New Zealand’s infrastructure.
• Progress toward a reform of the Resource Management Act (RMA), which will deliver more efficient processes and enable fast tracked development.
• Regional Infrastructure Fund investment, in priority areas such as support for energy and flood resilience.

Initiatives like these will lift productivity, create jobs and support New Zealand’s long-term prosperity.

Hearing from business on infrastructure priorities

Economic growth is ultimately driven by businesses that take risks to invest and hire workers. Businesses have direct experience of barriers and opportunities for growth. Businesses have told the Government they want faster processing of resource consents, including projects with nationally and regionally significant benefits. We are exploring calls for an infrastructure pipeline with bipartisan support through the 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. The need for affordable and secure energy has been a recurring theme and we will look to enact legislation to enable offshore renewable energy generation and implement the Electrify NZ plan.

Case studies

Government actions

Updated 10 August 2026

The Government has delivered 40 actions under the Infrastructure for Growth pillar, with an additional 17 actions underway.

Delivered to date

• Passed the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill to provide resource management system improvements and enable housing growth in our largest cities.
• Introduced two RMA reform Bills to Parliament (the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill) to make it quicker and simpler to consent renewable energy, boost housing supply and reduce red tape.
• Passed the Public Works (Critical Infrastructure) Amendment Bill to streamline the land acquisition process for major infrastructure projects.
• Removed the requirement for granny flats up to 70 square metres to have a building consent and a resource consent, a key milestone in the Government’s efforts to improve the building consent and planning system.
• Reduced cost across the system by standardising the wastewater consenting process.
• Introduced more affordable, end-point treatment options for small, rural communities to achieve safe drinking water.
• Delivered the Wood Energy Strategy and Action Plan to accelerate wood energy as a reliable, affordable and sustainable energy resource for domestic and export markets.
• Agreed to commit $1.062 billion from the $1.200 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund to projects over 14 regions and a range of sectors, including flood resilience, energy, water storage, and Māori development.
• Approved 145 projects from the Regional Infrastructure Fund, with 12 of them completing physical works.
• Developed the Government Response to 30-year National Infrastructure Plan which will give a long-term view of planned investment.
• Signed the first two City and Regional Deals with Auckland and Western Bay of Plenty to unlock regional potential and lift economic growth. The third Deal with Otago Central Lakes was substantially negotiated (scheduled for signing in August).
• Accelerated economic regulation requirements for Wellington Water under the Local Water Done Well Programme to ensure it is delivering value for money for ratepayers.
• Progressing legislation to further amend the Public Works Act to make it easier for the Crown to engage with landowners, support disaster recovery, and deliver infrastructure projects that provide wide public benefit.
• Delivered the New Zealand Infrastructure Investment Summit, which demonstrated that New Zealand is open for business and actively attracting foreign and local investment into infrastructure, including partnerships such as that between Brookfield and Waikato-Tainui on the Ruakura industrial and logistics hub.
• Delivered NPS Infrastructure 2025, the NPS Renewable Electricity Generation Amendment 2025 and NPS Electricity Networks Amendment 2025.
• Progressed NES Telecommunication Facilities and NES Electricity Transmission Activities (renamed to Electricity Network Activities) remaining amendments.
• Launched a refreshed Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework that delivers infrastructure projects efficiently and provides value for money through drawing on greater private sector capital and capability.
• Introduced changes to the thin capitalisation rules to remove a potential tax barrier to foreign investments in non-PPP infrastructure projects.
• Agreed policy decisions on improvements to infrastructure funding and financing to support urban growth.
• Passed The Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Bill, which enables charging schemes for our most congested roads to improve traffic flow.
• Passed the Water Services Authority levy to secure ongoing funding to ensure water is safe to drink and to protect the environmental performance of public drinking water, wastewater and stormwater networks.
• Passed the Watercare Charter into law to ensure affordable water services in Auckland, saving households about $899 million over four years and improving service quality and infrastructure investment to facilitate housing growth in the city.
• Released NZ Verify, an app to support a range of accredited, public and privately issued digital credentials, such as Mobile Driver Licences, Photo ID Cards, Qualifications, Digital Super Gold Cards and Community Services Cards.
• Passed the Fast-track Approvals Act to speed up consenting of projects with significant regional or national benefits.
• Established National Infrastructure Funding and Financing Limited to improve the financing and funding of the infrastructure system.
• Set the National Land Transport Fund at $22 billion over the next three years including investment in the Roads of National Significance programme.
• Streamlined building regulation for building plans and MultiProof designs and put a spotlight on building consent delays, to make it easier and cheaper to build in New Zealand.
• Responded to the Independent Inquiry into the School Property System, to improve the provision of school infrastructure and ultimately lead to safer, warmer and drier buildings for students.
• Legislation passed to enable offshore renewable energy generation.
• Passed the second reading of the Land Transport (Revenue) Amendment Bill to ensure that revenue tools support a user-pays system for funding land transport.
• Developed a geothermal strategy to unlock the full potential of New Zealand's under-utilised geothermal resources.
• Delivered shared infrastructure for digital identity credentials across the economy, coordinating Public Service efforts to enhance government services via the Service Modernisation Roadmap.
• Expedited significant Iwi and Māori led or partnered Fast-track projects.
• Moved to more standardised and regular updates of the Building Code system, with updates every three to four years.
• Improving drinking water infrastructure for rural Māori communities through the Marae Drinking Water Programme.
• Breaking ground on $6 billion in infrastructure projects between July and December 2025, including schools, hospitals and roading projects.
• Enacted legislation to allow more overseas building products to be used, making it easier to build and creating more flexibility.
• Enabled papakāinga on Māori land without planning consent.
• Agreed policy decisions to regulate smart Electric Vehicle chargers.
• Reformed water services through Local Water Done Well to lift investment in this critical infrastructure, including supporting territorial authorities to deliver Water Services Delivery Plans.

Underway

• Enacting the Planning and Natural Environment Bill.
• Developing National Policy Direction for the new Planning System.
• Introducing Transitional National Rules to simplify consent requirements.
• Introducing national instruments to free up land for urban development to enable our towns and cities to grow both up and out and to address the housing shortage.
• Continuing to improve the planning system to make it easier to build homes.
• Increasing remote inspections in the building consent process and developing an opt-in self-certification scheme for low-risk residential building work, to streamline the building of houses.
• Encouraging investor interest in infrastructure to encourage world-class, innovative ideas in how we provide solutions to community needs and build infrastructure.
• Progressing legislation to improve the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 to make it easier to fund and finance infrastructure projects using this model.
• Introducing legislation to replace development contributions with a development levy system for funding infrastructure needed to meet housing growth.
• Considering and approving investments to be made by the Regional Infrastructure Fund, contributing to regional economies and creating jobs, including strengthening New Zealand’s flood resilience infrastructure.
• Progressing work to identify system changes and processes required to support a successful fleetwide transition to Road User Charges (RUC).
• Developing additional national standards for wastewater infrastructure consenting to increase the potential for cost savings; developing New Zealand’s first national engineering standards for all reticulated networks to replace 45 different codes of practice; and developing new infrastructure design solutions for wastewater networks.
• Establishing an LNG import facility to ensure fuel supply for secure electricity generation and other gas users.
• Implement a Geothermal Strategy Action Plan.
• Progressing changes to the planning system to implement ElectrifyNZ and open up opportunities in the energy sector.
• Supporting the uptake of renewable energy and alternative fuels, including updating safety regulations, and setting smart Electric Vehicle charging standards.
• Supporting Iwi-led system innovation and investment collaboration with Iwi partners.

More information

An update to the Infrastructure for Growth pillar was published on 20 July 2025.

Read the Ministers' release:

Infrastructure projects to drive jobs and growth(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz.

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