National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards

Under the Resource Management Act, central government is in charge of preparing national policy statements and national environmental standards.

These set out the overarching national policy direction for councils to deal with resource management issues. When drafting policy and making resource consent decisions, TCDC must take these into account and follow the direction.

National Environmental Standards set out prescribed technical standards, methods or other requirements for environmental matters. Every council must enforce these standards to enable a consistent approach and decision-making process. The National Environmental Standards, along with our District Plan, set out whether resource consent is required or not.

The National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards can be found on the Ministry for the Environment website: https://environment.govt.nz/acts-and-regulations/national-direction/