The Social Housing Economic Recovery package, announced by the McGowan government, will buy, renovate and maintain social housing across the state, creating a pipeline of work for regional tradespeople.
The package will see 1,500 public and community houses refurbished, a rolling maintenance program targeting 3,800 regional dwellings and the delivery of about 250 new homes to help meet WA's social housing needs.
The $141.7 million housing refurbishment package will breathe new life into 1,500 of WA's ageing housing stock by stripping them back to the frames and rebuilding.
The plan, scheduled for immediate rollout, is expected to support about 380 jobs over two years and provide tradespeople and building material suppliers with additional certainty about an ongoing pipeline of work.
A second stream of work, which will create around 430 jobs is expected to start in 2020-21 when social housing tenants affected by the refurbishments are relocated to other state-owned properties.
Workers in regional WA will also benefit from the package under an $80 million investment to fast-track a regional maintenance program, which will prioritise local businesses quoting for work.
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Housing minister Peter Tinley said the package will create a pipeline of work for tradespeople.
"The beauty of the refurbishment and the regional maintenance aspects of this social housing economic recovery package is that they can start straight away and give small businesses, contractors, builders and tradespeople the chance to stay in work and keep their employees on board," he said.
The third element of the package is $97 million to build or buy about 250 dwellings comprising new social housing builds across both metropolitan Perth and regional areas and some off-the-plan purchases ready for immediate construction.
The package will be delivered in concurrence with the previously announced $150 million Housing and Homelessness Package and the $394 million METRONET Social and Affordable Housing and Job Package.
A call for submissions process will open around mid-June to acquire off-the-plan pre-sales opportunities.
Businesses, organisations or trades interested in becoming involved visit http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/housingstimulus.
