SOCIAL HOUSING —
MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
621. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Minister for Housing:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's record investment in social housing that will deliver an
immediate boost to social housing stock across the state.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how the use of alternative built form will help
deliver social housing in a faster time frame, particularly in the current
heated construction market?
(2) Can the minister advise the house how the shift to
more modular housing will help support more fabrication and
manufacturing jobs?
Mr J.N.
CAREY replied:
(1)–(2) I want to thank the member for the question. As
the member has stated, our government, the Mark McGowan government, has made the largest single investment
in the state's history of $875 million—$2.1 billion over the
next four years—to deliver 3 300 new homes. We understand that we face
a heated construction market. The economy is booming; the housing market
is booming, with 27 000 building approvals. Therefore, as the minister, I have
been driving a very clear reform program to accelerate the delivery of social
housing in Western Australia and that has meant taking a fresh look at
everything we do. This includes $80 million for 150 modular homes. In the next
few weeks, I will be announcing further details about the panel of modular companies to deliver those tranches of
work. But, already, our business-as-usual program has been shifting. I visited
Forrestfield. Very soon, two modular homes, the first for Kalgoorlie, will be
delivered.
I was in the member's
electorate today because we are looking at other more traditional methods, like
timber. It has not necessarily been the most popular choice, but we know that
in this heated market, it can deliver more social housing. Today, I visited one
of six new homes in the northern suburbs that are being delivered with timber. Let us be very clear: under the original program,
they were to be double-brick homes and
they were to take a year to build and be delivered in January. Under our
reforms, they are being delivered right now, taking five months. Members
can see that we are making extraordinary gains and extraordinary changes to the delivery of social housing in Western
Australia. Of course, moving to timber homes for social housing is
backed by a $350 million investment in the softwood plantation industry. I want
to grow these sectors. I want to grow not
only the modular sector and the timber housing sector, but also prefab and
other forms of building so we can get that much-needed social housing
out across Western Australia.