HOMELESSNESS — SOCIAL HOUSING
642. Hon STEVE MARTIN to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Housing:
I refer to the recent announcement
that the East Perth Common Ground facility has been put on hold indefinitely
and the minister's comments in the media today that he suffers from ''sleepless
nights'' due to a lack of tenders for social housing projects.
(1) What advice
did the Department of Communities give the minister on the decision to put the
construction of Common Ground on hold?
(2) Did the department receive any
tenders for Common Ground under the initial tender process?
(3) How many
social housing projects are currently being delayed because the department has
been unable to secure a tender?
Hon
SAMANTHA ROWE replied:
On
behalf of the Leader of the House, I thank the member for some notice of the
question and provide the following answer on behalf of the Minister for
Housing.
(1) As the member has previously been advised, the
minister has made no such announcement and has made it clear that a new
request for tender will go out as soon as possible. As noted in the minister's
media statement released on 27 July 2022, the Department of Communities advised
that after progressing through detailed evaluation, the offers received for the
East Perth Common Ground facility were not deemed suitable. Tender evaluations
are routinely conducted as a matter of course for the procurement of major
projects and take into consideration a range of both cost and non-cost factors,
including capacity to deliver, value for money and suitable previous
experience. A new request for tender will go out as soon as possible.
(2) Yes.
(3) Communities
has a rolling program of works for the delivery of social housing programs that
includes tender and panel contract arrangements. Communities is not immune to
the current challenges of the construction
market. However, it remains committed to increasing the opportunities for
building companies of all sizes to be engaged in the delivery of social
housing across the state through the establishment of a new statewide builders
panel. The new panel will primarily support the delivery of social housing but
may be expanded to include other housing programs delivered by Communities.
When projects do not receive a suitable tender response, Communities works
through a range of options to achieve project outcomes. This can include
revisions to procurement method, scope, alternative construction method and
schedule. The state government through Communities is being flexible and
adaptable and has a range of initiatives to address the supply of social
housing. These include construction and spot purchasing of additional homes,
construction of modular homes, funding building assessments to promote extended
useable life spans of existing assets,
investing in maintenance and refurbishments of ageing public housing
stock and exploring repurposing assets to maximise availability for social
housing.