Stories by Phil Pennington

Vital hospital building projects in Auckland are being delayed for months by questions over fire designs - and especially the safe evacuation of smoke-filled rooms.

A review of firefighting at a big South Auckland warehouse blaze says asbestos floated up to 1km away as concerns remain over Fire and Emergency safety protocols.

Developers have told MPs they do not want a housing intensification bill that gives them open slather across swathes of suburbia. Developers have told MPs they do not want a...

Householders face losing over a billion dollars worth of sunlight and views under radical housing intensification law changes underway.

Landfills across the country are expected to be filled with more demolition waste when building rules kick in allowing increased housing intensification.

A bill to allow three homes up to three storeys high on one existing section is stirring controversy as it is rushed through Parliament.

Home buyers who lost out on a deal after their developers backed out using a sunset clause, and in some cases went on to sell the property for hundreds of thousands more.

A 50m-tall tower with 70 tonnes of bells in it that presents a high earthquake risk in central Wellington has been approved to stay that way for up to six years.

Official records about the shaky state of the prized Carillon bell tower have been "splintered", making it harder for the public to find out what is going on.

Work is underway to deliver a clearer contract to address the risk of the sunset clause, in which developers can bail out.

Fire and Emergency has asked the government for a temporary exception to the vaccine mandate.

The professional firefighters' union is warning there will not be enough crews left for callouts when the Covid vaccine mandate kicks in next week.

Officials have pulled back from the boldest approaches to making houses warmer, because of the stresses on the supply chain.

About a third of Afghans allowed to resettle here to escape the Taliban do not meet strict criteria imposed by Cabinet.

Lawyers acting for Afghans unable to get visas to come here have told the High Court the government has not acted fairly.

Pilots flying into medical trouble are protesting against a safety system they say is broken.

The accused initially told police he did not know what happened then changed his story to say he fell on the 17-month-old boy but he "seemed fine", an inquest has heard.

It's taken five years for Graham Lindsay to clear his name after the CAA put him through medical checks and grounded him - and then faced accusations of being a narcissist and a stalker.

A Taihape school has rejected the Ministry of Education's apology for taking its students' educational farm away - and accused it of incompetence and letting the farm's facilities degrade into a…

Waka Kotahi has no "respect" for taxpayer money and is failing to keep roads safe, former Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter says.

A woman trapped in Afghanistan while New Zealand authorities have held her passport for three years, is pleading for help.

Air quality experts are working with officials on rolling out carbon dioxide monitoring in classrooms to help counter the threat of Covid-19.

Air quality experts are looking to the government's pandemic school plan today to do more to protect students in fuggy classrooms. Video

Firefighters who say they are being exposed to cancer-causing asbestos have issued a safety notice against their employer.

Church lawyers pressured the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse to narrow the scope of its investigations, the chair of the inquiry told survivors.