First quake report to target new buildings

The Minister of Building and Construction says the recommendations out of the first report from the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission of Inquiry will target just new buildings at this stage.

The first report looks into a number of issues, including soils and foundations, the performance of CBD buildings and low-damage building technologies.

Maurice Williamson says the priority is to implement the recommendations for new construction projects.

"We will get to a second phase of this stuff where we look at the existing building stock, what we call earthquake-prone building policy, but this is mainly to do with what we do with brand new buildings - when we're about to build something, how do we go about it."

Mr Williamson says the earthquakes are game changers for the construction industry and not a lot has been taken into account before.

He says now they want to make it all really well understood before design work begins.

Photo: NZ Herald