National directions and national planning standards

National planning standards

The Government is introducing national planning standards to make council plans and policy statements easier to prepare, understand and comply with. 

• National planning standards (first set)

The Minister for the Environment and the Minister of Conservation released the first set of national planning standards on 05 April 2019. All councils must migrate existing RMA plans to the new National Planning Standards in the timeframes specified in the standards. Updates the RMA plans to implement the new National Planning Standards are done without going go through a public consultation process. 

For Waikato Regional Council RMA plans, we are aiming to migrate the operative regional coastal plan and regional plan into the new National Planning Standards in 2019/20, and migrate the Regional Policy Statement by 2022. We will make these updates using our new on-line eplan which will replace the existing on-line plans.

Our two existing online plans are Waikato Regional Plan (online version) and Regional Coastal Plan (online version). 

See RMA plans will be easier to make and understand [Beehive website].

Supporting information for the first set

National policy statements

National policy statements are instruments issued under section 52(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991. They state objectives and policies for matters of national significance. This page lists current and proposed national policy statements. It has information on their development and implementation.

Read more - National policy statement

National environmental standards

National environmental standards (NES) are regulations issued under section 43 of the Resource Management Act and can apply regionally or nationally (although all current national Environmental Standards apply nationally). This page explains why we have national environmental standards, and links to standards in effect and in development.

Read more - National environment standards