Page 3256 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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I will come to some of the comments that Mr Parton made later on, but I thank him for opening the door just a crack, and I will put my foot through and respond to some of the comments that he made.
I want to talk a bit about some of the housing initiatives that the budget has committed to, particularly around funding for growth and renewal, increased maintenance of our public housing stock, and providing more opportunities for more affordable housing in partnership with the build to rent and community housing sector. This will be an opportunity to have some really good projects and provide affordable rentals in the ACT and, indeed, across the country, because of the work that the federal Labor government has committed to, in working with state and territory governments, to make it easier for community housing organisations to get funding through the federal government’s loan facility, NHFIC, and maybe working with local governments to build even more housing across the country.
In the ACT we have committed a further $30 million investment to support the Growth and Renewing Public Housing program. This public housing growth and renewing program builds on the first public housing growth and renewal program, in which 1,288 properties that were no longer suitable were demolished and replaced with 1,288 modern, more suitable dwellings, which are more affordable to heat and cool and better suited to the needs of our tenants.
Under this program, we are demolishing or selling a further 1,000 homes. We will be replacing those homes with 1,000 modern, more sustainable, suitable homes that are affordable to heat and cool for the tenants, and for the people who will be living in them. We have already got halfway, with 140 new public housing dwellings, towards our target of 400, under the parliamentary and governing agreement. We will continue that work.
Mr Parton, your comments acknowledging the work of Housing ACT will be well received, because they have worked incredibly hard. They did not slow down at all during COVID. They continued to build homes and support tenants over that incredibly difficult period of time. A lot of it was done remotely. With what they have been able to achieve, despite the challenges that we have had with weather, COVID, supplies, and contractors being able to build, they are still ploughing forward to meet the targets that we have identified in the parliamentary and governing agreement. But they are providing more than targets; they are providing homes for people that need them.
The budget includes a further $57.3 million to undertake additional public housing repairs and maintenance in order to maintain high-quality public housing. This means more bathrooms, more kitchens, new carpeting, painting and roof repairs, as well as replacements. Taken together with the previous budget’s maintenance spend, approximately $140 million will be spent on public housing maintenance over two years. This is a significant boost to public housing maintenance work, as well as supporting the local industry here in the ACT.
The government is delivering more affordable housing options for more Canberrans through our affordable housing initiatives. This year’s budget has allocated funding to explore additional policy options to further improve housing affordability for low- to
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