WA creates panel to fast track social housing

THE Western Australian government is establishing a new builders panel to support the delivery of new and refurbished dwellings to boost social housing supply across the state.

The state-wide panel is being set up to accelerate the injection of new social housing, though may eventually be expanded to address other housing programs by the Department of Communities.

“WA’s heated construction market has meant that we need to think innovatively about how we can accelerate the delivery of much needed housing for the community,” said John Carey, housing minister.

“Establishing a new state-wide building panel is a great way of accelerating delivery as all participating companies have been pre-approved to deliver projects.”

Those appointed to the panel with have both construct-only and design-and-construct opportunities available to them, with builders to nominate their capacity to deliver in the panel procurement process.

For construct-only opportunities successful proponents will be engaged to work from a range of existing designs in delivering the dwellings.

While for design-and-construct opportunities, successful proponents will be able to work with an architect to develop a suitable design.

The government is setting out to make the process to qualify as simple as possible, in order to encourage greater participation, especially for both smaller-scale and regional contractors.

“I encourage all registered builders, of all sizes, across the State to register their interest for this opportunity,” added Carey.

In line with this successful proponents won’t have to submit pricing plans until after being allocated a project.

“The establishment of this panel will also assist companies, large and small, to build their capacity and benefit from our Government’s major pipeline of investments in social housing, which may enable them to employ more staff and take on additional work,” concluded Carey.

In February, the Western Australian government announced the launch of its a new Housing Diversity Pipeline, to see new developments on government land as well as boosting the availability of social and affordable housing.

Tenders WA will begin advertising the request for expressions of interest in the new panel early next month, with builders and contractors at any scale and from any region welcomed.