Page 1612 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 June 2022
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assessment of their cladding and expects more to apply before applications close in July this year.
In undertaking this work we have facilitated the delivery of expert professional advice so that owners have a realistic understanding of the risk posed by the cladding on their buildings. This means owners have been able to make informed decisions about how to best mitigate the risk. The government has also made sure that owners are aware of the steps they can take to reduce fire risk by working with ACT Fire & Rescue, who have provided practical tips and advice. ACT Fire & Rescue are provided with information regarding individual risk assessments to ensure that they have good information if there is an incident to respond to.
For owners corporations who now know that they have combustible cladding that needs remediation, the ACT government is progressing the delivery of a concessional loan scheme to support the removal and replacement of combustible cladding on their buildings. It has been important to draw on the learnings from phase 1 of the scheme to develop a loan scheme that is useful to owners corporations and responds to the issues we know they will be facing. This scheme was announced as part of the 2021-22 budget, and key elements of the scheme have been announced, contrary to the speech that Ms Lee gave in the chamber today. (Quorum formed.)
For members of the public who are wondering what just happened, the Liberal Party pulled a procedural stunt to draw more people into the chamber, in the middle of my speech. As I was saying before I was interrupted, the government has announced a loan scheme and has announced quite a range of its details. There will be $50 million initially allocated to the scheme, with a fixed interest rate at the government cost of borrowing, which is currently in the band of 2.5 to three per cent, loan terms of 10 years, no application or other loan fees, individual loans generally up to $15 million per owners corporation, and no penalties for repaying the loan early. Ms Lee, in her remarks, suggested there were no details available. That is quite a lot of detail.
We understand that cladding remediation and loan administration will be a significant undertaking for owners corporations and executive committees. Under the loan, owners corporations will have access to an extra $10,000 on their loan to fund administration costs, such as administration support services, tools or additional strata management services related to loan administration. The government will also allow the first $100,000 of the loan to be released early for owners corporations to engage a range of project management, architectural and fire and engineering services to design their remediation works and go out to tender. The loan will assist with all remediation works and any associated costs, including the costs of building professionals, strata managers, legal and regulatory fees.
The Assembly will be pleased to know that this is subject to a procurement process and the government is in the final phases of this process. Minister Vassarotti looks forward to announcing the final details and opening applications very shortly. Members will appreciate that the government cannot announce all of the details until the procurement is complete because there is a certain amount of negotiation with the provider that will need to be finalised as part of those contract negotiations. As soon
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