Over the next ten years we plan to build one million Private homes and 200,000 Council houses. Making homes affordable with interest free mortgages and zero deposit, ending the scourge of homelessness and unaffordability.
In our first year we will get to the root causes as to why we are not currently building enough homes. If it is a shortage of skilled workers then we can arrange for skilled workers to migrate to Australia, making those with the skills that we need, a priority. We will undertake a review of all the bureaucracy that is connected to building a house, with a view of removing or streamlining all bureaucracy that is not necessary. Unrealistic efficiency targets will be reduced enabling construction to be quickened. Materials will be reviewed for availability and price. We will also investigate alternative building materials.
The planning application process needs to be refined and improved to enable applications to be processed as quickly as possible, without cutting corners. Nonsense reasons for refusing a planning application will be removed, only genuine reasons will be maintained.
We will, in conjunction with architects’, develop a basic standard house design that can be preapproved to automatically pass planning permission. Private builders can then use that plan and develop it to their specifications. The initial prototype plan will be used for the construction of Council houses.
We will work with all Councils to develop a directory of all available building land in each Council and ensure that the necessary funds are made available to assist the Council in developing the necessary infrastructure to enable housing estates to be built.
We plan to start building 30,000 houses in our first year. All these houses will be used to test run our new building codes, designs and materials. All these houses will be Council houses, so we can experiment with different designs and specifications. There are 79 councils in Victoria, 31 metropolitan and 48 rural and regional. It will work out approximately 380 houses per council. Some councils will build more and some less. Once built they will be designated to house people who are currently homeless in Victoria.
We will plan to build 130,000 new houses every year for ten years to meet our 1.2 million homes target. They will consist of approximately 111,112 Private houses and 18,889 Council Houses. It is envisaged that 50,000 will be built in each of the new cities that we will be starting to build. With the other 30,000 houses being built throughout the 79 councils. These new houses are in addition to whatever the private building sector may be building within the State.
During this second phase we should be able to iron out all the bugs in the system and to have developed the new building codes to enable us to meet our monthly building target of 11,000 new houses per month.
By our third year the building process should be well and truly tested and should be running like an efficient production line. By the third-year factories that specialise in building prefab components should be fully operational, enabling us to build complete house sections in a factory to be delivered and assembled on site. This automotive process will help keep the cost of building homes low.
