Question – Development of Social Housing

Questions asked by the Hon Meg Webb MLC on 1 September 2022 and answered by the Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing on 8 September 2022.  

With regard to the Government’s policies around access to affordable and accessible housing:

General Response: All our social and affordable housing capital program is driven by demand, which has been previously delivered under Actions Plans. To inform our capital program on where homes will be build, and what types of homes we need, we are developing a 20 year Housing Strategy. This Strategy will be finalised by mid-2023 and will be the key document that ties demand around the State and types of demand with supply and guide our planned new Housing Authority, Homes Tasmania in where and when homes will be built, as well as the type of home. For example, 50 per cent of our Housing Register are eligible for a one-bedroom home, meaning we need a significant increase in our one-bedroom housing supply.

All new social housing dwellings are required to be constructed in accordance with Communities Tasmania’s ‘Design Policy for Social Housing’. The only exceptions to this are where there are site specific limitations, or for target client group reasons, where this is not practicable or appropriate.

Where practical, all new social houses built under this government had adhered to the design policy, which is comparable to Silver Level on the Living Housing Design Guidelines (LHDG).

Question 1: How many houses have been constructed for social housing in each of the Local Government Areas of Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence and Kingborough in each of the last five years, reported by:

a) The LGA the home has been built; and
b) The number of homes in each that have been constructed to Silver Level of the LHDG and Gold Level and above of the LHDG; and
c) The number of new homes in each that replace social housing properties that were demolished; and
d) The net gain in the number of social housing properties in each over the time period.

Answer 1: There have been 364 new social housing dwellings completed in the four selected LGAs over the past five years. Of these, 71 have met either Gold Level and above of the LHDG, or the Australian Standards, AS1428 and AS4299.

Unfortunately, more than half of the homes built do not have the data available to determine which LHDG level they are completed to.

The following table shows the LGAs these new social housing dwellings have been built.

Regarding questions 1c and 1d, the Department of Communities is continuing to work on composing this information and will provide on notice as soon as possible.

Question 2: The number of social housing properties demolished in each of the Local Government Areas of Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence and Kingborough in the last five years that have not been replaced by another social housing property.

Answer 2: This information is complex to obtain and the Department of Communities is continuing to work on composing this information. It will be provided on notice as soon as possible.

Question 3:  The number of houses expected to be constructed for social housing in each of the Local Government Areas of Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence and Kingborough in the next two years, reported by:

a) The LGA the home is being built; and
b) The number of properties in each that will be constructed to Silver Level of the LHDG and the number constructed to Gold Level and above of the LHDG.
c) The number of new homes in each that will replace social housing properties that have been demolished; and
d) The expected net gain in the number of social housing properties in each LGA over the time period.

Answer 3: The current pipeline of works offers the details on the houses that have been confirmed to be constructed over the next 12 to 18 months – it does not cover the full two-year timeframe specified. Of the projects that are currently planned in the pipeline of works, there are 356 new social housing dwellings expected to be built in the four selected Local Government areas and these are broken down by expected LGA in table 2 below.

Regarding question 3c, the Department of communities is continuing to work on composing this information and will provide on notice as soon as possible.

Regarding question 3d, the Department of Communities is unable to predict the number of houses that will be sought to be purchases by existing tenants or affected by arson or other issues, as such this number is difficult to determine.

Question resubmitted to Parliament on 13 September requesting disaggregated data and answered on 28 September by the Minister for State Development and Construction

 See more of Meg’s Questions to Parliament.