Four MPs proposed establishing a simplification committee to review planning and building law with the aim of making it easier to get approval for construction projects. A majority of the Committee on Municipal and General Affairs (Labour Party, Socialist Left Party, Red Party, and Green Party) recommends the Storting reject the proposal, while the Progress Party, Conservative Party, and Centre Party have submitted their own proposals focused on efficiency and reducing state governor oversight.
AI-generated summary · Model: Claude Haiku 4.5 · Generated: 14 May 2026
These are the proposals in the document, not decisions. See the votes for the outcome.
Progress Party, Conservative Party, and Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to ensure state governors coordinate state actors efficiently and reject objections unrelated to national interests.
Progress Party, Conservative Party, and Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to introduce binding time limits for state governors' handling of appeals under planning and building law.
Progress Party, Conservative Party, and Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to review the tasks of state governors and present solutions that reduce their responsibilities.
Progress Party and Conservative Party: The Storting calls on the government to ensure state governors provide early guidance during planning processes.
Progress Party and Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to review the tasks of state governors and present solutions that reduce their budgets.
Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to establish a committee to review planning and building law and associated regulations, including the building technical regulation, with the aim of simplifying building rules and reducing the scope of objections and state governor oversight.
Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to specify in the committee's mandate that the starting point shall be to say yes more often and no less often in building cases, that regulations shall be simplified and reduced in scope and detail, that costs and processing time shall decrease, that municipal self-governance shall be strengthened, and that state governors may only override municipal decisions in building cases when particularly important national interests, clear errors, legal violations, or serious procedural shortcomings are present.
Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to instruct the committee to recommend that distance requirements to public transport hubs be removed, that natural hazard mapping at the planning level not be required for single-family homes or small building projects, that noise requirements for student housing be reduced, that functional shoreline zones be the main principle in shoreline management, that a maximum duration for land designation be introduced, and that natural hazard mapping requirements be removed for projects that neither create new housing, new commercial activity, nor inherently pose natural hazards.
Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to set a deadline for the committee to present its report no later than spring 2027.
Centre Party: The Storting calls on the government to propose stricter procedural rules for state governors, including a requirement for dialogue with individuals and businesses before decisions are made, in addition to introducing binding time limits.
Committee recommendation: Document 8:188 S (2025–2026) – Private member's bill from MPs Erling Sande, Bengt Fasteraune, Ole Herman Sveian, and Geir Inge Lien on saying yes more often and no less often in building cases – is rejected.