Build blitz for social housing

Deal done on first of 300 homes to be built after waiving of state’s debt

CONTRACTS have been secured for almost half of the 300 homes able to be built now Tasmania’s $150 million Commonwealth housing debt has been waived.

The State Government has embarked on a housing blitz to provide accommodation to some of the 3500 people on the Housing Tasmania waiting list, and to stimulate the construction sector post COVID-19.

Housing Minister Roger Jaensch said contracts for 127 new social houses to be built under the latest round of Community Housing Grants had been signed.

“The new homes are the first of 300 made possible by the Commonwealth Housing Debt Waiver Agreement, and we will look to contract the remaining 173 over the next few months,” he said.

“This will provide a continuous baseload for the construction industry and houses for those waiting.”

Tasmania’s housing debt was waived in September last year as part of a deal struck with Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie to secure her vote for Canberra’s $158 billion tax cut policy.

The debt stemmed from the construction of public housing in Tasmania between 1956 and 1989.

Since 2006 the state spent $15 million each year on repayments.

Mr Jaensch said the State Government had also brought forward $14 million and provided new funding of $10 million to deliver 220 of these social houses by 2022 — a year earlier than originally planned.

Work is also continuing on around 250 homes under construction under Stage 1 of the Community Housing Grants, with the foundations of 18 new two-bedroom units laid in Somerset yesterday.

The units at Somerset are being built by Housing Choices Tasmania, in partnership with Beardwood Pty Ltd and Starbox Architects.

A Beardwood spokesman said the social housing work had saved jobs.

“We lost projects due to COVID-19, so these housing projects are crucial to us staying afloat,” he said.

Housing Choices Tasmania said an additional 28 dwellings were currently in their pipeline in the North-West, along with another 39 in the South.