Proposed competition for building consents between council and the private sector has worried some Christchurch councillors.

In an effort to speed up consents, the government is considering encouraging private companies to approve them instead of local councils.

Councillor Tim Scandrett said this could drop the standard of building work.

"If you're going to try and rush things through but you're also taking off the responsibility of liability, I think those two combinations are recipes for disaster."

The government is also looking at capping the level of liability for those issuing consents, but a guarantee scheme would be needed to protect the consumer.

Scandrett is not convinced this would be enough to ensure the standard stays the same.

"It has to be a guarantee in some way, shape or form of the quality of work that is undertaken, and I think that's what the government should look at, rather than trying to speed things through."

Property developer Ernest Duval thinks the proposed changes are a positive as long as building standards are upheld.

"Because our building costs are so high in this country, it's a positive step if we can reduce the timeframe and reduce the costs, introduce a little bit of competition, and deal with the liability issues."

Duval believes that in order to ensure building standards are upheld, the procedures developed by government would need to be water-tight.

"The idea in general has merit, but it is going to need quite a bit more work because people are going to want to know that if there's a problem in the future, if they got it wrong, they would have recourse or fallback to that company," he said.