The regulatory relief regime is a new mechanism under the Planning Act 2026 and Natural Environment Act 2026. It is intended to provide 'relief' for landowners where there is a significant adverse impact on the reasonable use of land caused by a specified rule in a plan.1
For the purposes of the regulatory relief provisions:
"Reasonable use" includes using or potentially using land for any activity whose actual or potential effects on any land use (Planning Act) or natural resource (Natural Environment Act), or on any person other than the landowner, would not be significant;2
A "specified rule" is a rule on a "specified topic",3 namely a rule that addresses:
significant historic heritage to the extent it relates to an identified area
outstanding natural landscapes or outstanding natural features
a site of significance to Māori
areas of high natural character in the coastal environment, wetlands, lakes, rivers, or their margins
terrestrial indigenous biodiversity to the extent it relates to an identified area.
What is regulatory relief?
Relief could be in the form of financial compensation but does not have to be monetary. It can take the form of waived or reduced local authority rates or fees for a planning consent or natural resource permit application, additional development rights elsewhere on the landowner's property or other land they own, land in exchange for the landowner's land, or access to targeted grant programmes for restoration, fencing, planting, or other mitigation activities.4
Critically, regulatory relief is not a direct, standalone statutory entitlement. Nor is it required to be awarded on an equivalent or dollar-for-dollar basis.5 Instead, each local authority must build its own regulatory relief framework into its land use plan or natural environment plan6, setting out how impact is assessed, how eligibility is determined, and what relief is made available.
How the regulatory relief regime works
The regulatory relief regime set out in Part 4 of Schedule 3 to the Planning Act operates broadly as a five-stage process.
Duty to consider impact: When preparing or deciding a proposed plan (or private plan change) that contains one or more specified rules, a local authority:
Must consider the impact of the proposed rule(s) on the reasonable use of land
Is not required to consider the impact of a proposed specified rule in a Planning Act plan that is substantially similar to a specified rule in the operative Planning Act plan.
Relief is separately available where a rule carried over from the Resource Management Act 1991 (the RMA) into the first Planning Act plan has a similarly adverse impact on the reasonable use of land.
Preparing a relief framework: A local authority must include a relief framework in its proposed plan if it considers, after taking into account any prescribed criteria7 (which would be set out in a future national instrument or regulations), that a specified rule or rules is reasonably likely to have a significant adverse impact on the reasonable use of land. The local authority must assess the significance of adverse impacts, considering matters such as the extent to which a rule restricts development potential, imposes protection or non-use obligations, creates compliance costs, or affects land value, before it consults on the proposed plan.
Content of the relief framework: A relief framework must identify the types and levels of impact considered reasonably likely to occur, what constitutes a significant adverse impact, criteria for grouping similar impacts, and how relief is to be made available. Relief is not required to be provided on an equivalent basis, nor to fully address any significant adverse impact.
Eligibility: A person is eligible for relief under a relief framework in a plan only if they own land to which the relief framework applies, and they own that land when the plan is made operative. However:
A person who makes a change request is not eligible for relief as a result of that request8
A person who submits in support of a specified rule applying to land they own is not eligible for relief from that rule if the plan is amended accordingly9
For the first plan prepared under the new Planning Act and Natural Environment Act, a person is only eligible for relief for an RMA rule carried over as a specified rule if they have owned the land since before that RMA rule was notified10
A person who has already received relief under one plan cannot claim relief again for the same land under a later plan, unless the impact has become substantially worse.11
Implementation and review: Once a plan is operative, the local authority must implement the relief framework as soon as reasonably practicable, including carrying out a relief assessment and notifying eligible persons of the results. As soon as practicable after carrying out the relief assessment, the local authority must also give public notice on its website that the relief assessment has been carried out and that notices will be sent to eligible persons (if any).
A person who disagrees with a relief assessment may apply to the local authority for a review within 30 working days of receiving the notice, and a person who is eligible but received no notice may also apply for a review within 30 working days of public notice being given.
In either case, the local authority must decide the review within 15 working days and must carry out a new relief assessment in light of any new information. The landowner then has a right of review to the Planning Tribunal, which considers whether the local authority correctly assessed the impact and correctly applied the relief framework, and may determine that an alternative relief mechanism set out in the plan is more appropriate.
A party may appeal the Planning Tribunal's decision to the Environment Court, but only on a question of law, within 15 working days of the decision being notified.
Interaction with the Environment Court's existing jurisdiction
Separately from the regulatory relief framework, each Act preserves the Environment Court's existing power to direct a local authority to modify, delete or replace a plan provision (or, in limited circumstances, acquire land) where a provision would severely impair the reasonable use of land and place an unfair and unreasonable burden on the landowner. This is a lower standard than its RMA predecessor12, which operated when an interest in land had been rendered "incapable of reasonable use".
When exercising this power, the Environment Court must have regard to, among other things, Part 4 of Schedule 3 to the Planning Act and take into account any relief already provided under it, but any successful regulatory relief award is not intended to provide relief for any matter to which this power may apply.13 The two are intended to operate alongside each other and to address different matters.14
Why this matters
For councils, the immediate task is identifying which proposed rules touch on the specified topics and building a compliant relief framework into any proposed land use plan or natural environment plan before notification.
For landowners and their advisers, key practical points include that eligibility turns on ownership at the time a plan becomes operative, that relief need not match the impact suffered, and that a structured review pathway is available (including an ultimate right of review to the Planning Tribunal) if a council's assessment appears incorrect.
The concept also does not have bipartisan support and may not survive a change of government. Opposition parties have pledged to repeal this aspect of the system if elected this year, citing cost, implementation, and environmental concerns, while the current coalition Government maintains that the provisions will encourage "common sense" decision-making by councils and will strengthen property rights.
Please contact a member of our team if you would like to discuss what the regulatory relief provisions might mean for a specific plan, proposed rule, or piece of land.
1 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 61 (Purpose).
2 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 62, definition of "reasonable use".
3 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 62, definition of "specified rule".
4 See Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 69
5 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 67(3).
6 The regime is applied to natural environment plans by a cross-reference; see Natural Environment Act 2026, s 118.
7 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 62, definition of "prescribed criteria".
8 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 70(2).
9 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 70(3)-(4).
10 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 70(9); sch 1, cl 74.
11 Planning Act 2026, sch 3 pt 4, cl 70(6).
12 See Resource Management Act 1991, s 85.
13 Planning Act 2026, s 128(8).
14 Planning Act 2026, s 128; Natural Environment Act 2026, s 128.