Northern Territory Auditor-General's Office, February 2023 Report to the Legislative Assembly
Tabled Paper 772
Tabled Papers for 14th Assembly 2020 -; Tabled Papers; ParliamentNT
2023-02-14
Tabled by the Speaker
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory under Standing Order 240. Where copyright subsists with a third party it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
English
Tabled papers
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
application/pdf
Copyright
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/898837
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/898851
Auditor-General for the Northern Territory February 2023 Report Page 73 of 131 Modular Housing cont Amending the Plan The information is regularly updated as part of the Plan and has helped to determine project priorities which may change depending on several factors such as: Weather conditions and changes in suitability of sites Logistical difficulties such as getting sufficient building materials or modular units on site Transport logistics and the cost of transporting modular housing to remote sites Availability of suitable construction personnel in remote locations Co-ordination of logistics with external providers such as PWC The suitability of each type of structure for each location The cost of construction and whether it is more efficient to use block/brick housing, modular housing or a Room to Breathe solution noting some solutions may be more effective and enable a quicker response to the overcrowding need in each location. In practice, this means that the delineation of the project between Homebuild NT and Room to Breathe is not as clear cut as originally envisaged. In order to progress the HomeBuild NT program and meet expected spending commitments, especially those related to the National Partnership agreement with the Australian Government, the NTG has explored a range of housing products available in addition to traditional block homes constructed on site. The program allows service providers to offer alternatives to traditional block homes. One alternative offered by the market to meet the NTG public housing demand is the construction of modular housing. The original concept was referred to as prefabricated housing, but the Agencies prefer to refer to the project as modular housing due to the perception of prefabricated housing being more associated with flat pack or container type housing which has a connotation of being of lower quality or a shorter effective useful life. The use of modular housing enables: Construction of homes to continue during the wet season in the far north of the Northern Territory by building components of housing that are then transported to site for assembly Construction of elevated and semi-elevated homes in areas that are prone to flood inundations to mitigate the risk of ground-level block homes becoming flooded Reduced need for water for use in onsite construction (as example for use in batching plants) in water-stressed communities Preparatory site-works and infrastructure to be completed onsite in advance of the construction of the modular homes Aboriginal employment opportunities both on community and in the major urban centres where the housing components are built. The design of the modular homes during the process is intended to ensure the modular homes are of equivalent quality to other permanent types of housing including housing products which would be offered as part of the Government Employee Housing program.