Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson says he is prepared to name and shame 14 buildings which are similar in design to the CTV building which collapsed in the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, killing 115 people.
The wreckage of the CTV building in February 2011. Photo: AFP (file)
Since the inquiry into the CTV collapse, a nationwide audit of buildings with non-ductile columns has been undertaken. Some 176 have been cleared, another 59 excluded and two vacated.
Mr Williamson told Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme on Tuesday that 14 owners of buildings throughout the country with non-ductile columns have not booked an engineer to assess the structures.
The minister said the Government does not have the power to force the owners to get an assessment, but he intends to use moral pressure to make them change their minds.
Work is underway for legislative change in 2014 which will change that, he said.
The Institute of Professional Engineers says it is of public interest to ensure buildings with similar design to the CTV building in Christchurch are assessed by engineers.
Andrew Cleland, chief executive of the The Institute of Professional Engineers says assessing such buildings is complex, but necessary.
"You can't make very simple assumptions about this, it actually needs that detailed analysis, and this costs some tens of thousands of dollars to do that analysis.
But we believe there is in fact a public interest here in actually understanding our building stock."
