The Christchurch City Council says it has significantly reduced a backlog of building consents, after being warned it risked losing its ability to grant them.
At the end of May the council got a letter from International Accreditation New Zealand warning it that it was failing to meet statutory requirements.
The agency said it intended to revoke the council's accreditation unless it improved its consenting process by 28 June.
A council manager, Peter Mitchell, says since Saturday, 15 June, staff have reduced the backlog from 500 consents to 371.
He says five new consents staff have been hired this week and the council is on track to clear the entire backlog by the deadline.
