Business NSW Central Coast is calling for a reduction in “red tape” to get building projects off the ground, amid concerns for the region’s construction industry as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Regional Director, Paula Martin, said the construction industry employs one in ten Central Coast locals and has been the second fastest growing industry outside of health over the last decade.
“This regional growth has made construction a major employer and provider of vocational pathways for our youth with over 30 per cent of local Apprenticeships and Trainees placed in construction businesses,” she said.
“COVID-19 has been challenging for construction businesses.
“Prior to the pandemic, this industry was experiencing a boom, but now our local construction businesses are worried about the future as they come to the completion of current projects and their pipeline of new work looking very thin.
“Over the last quarter, businesses are telling me they have seen an unprecedented increase in the competitiveness for local projects with some projects attracting nearly triple the number of construction companies bidding for a job, and not all bids are local.
“The number of new projects on the horizon for some of our larger construction businesses has also fallen for this time of the year,
“Health restrictions have had an impact on the industry and, in particular, the small business supply chain.
“Small businesses have seen impacts to their payment terms, numbers of trades people normally placed on jobs and increased costs of health compliance.
“The Central Coast is forecasting over 70,000 additional residents by 2040.
“This means we need housing, businesses and community places built to keep up with this growth.
“With business confidence dropping to rock bottom levels, the ability for speedy recovery will depend on all levels of government working together to accelerate shovel ready projects in the region, increase local participation for local projects, and be relentless in removing local government red tape that delay large projects including housing and commercial builds.
“We could be facing an unemployment rate upwards of 13 per cent on the Central Coast by next year.
“Too often I am told of development delays due to local red tape.
“We have a CBD that needs reinvigorating, growth corridors that need to be built and housing estates that need to be approved.
“Let’s move on with these builds because our economy is dependent on it.”
Meanwhile. Master Builders Australia (MBA) is calling on the Federal Government to fund a new initiative, CommunityBuilder Grants, in the October Federal Budget to activate the construction of community and not-for-profit facilities.
“We are calling for the Federal Government to adapt the highly effective HomeBuilder scheme model to do for the commercial construction sector what they have done for the housing sector,” MBA CEO Denita Wawn said.
“Commercial construction activity will suffer a major fall of more than 17 per cent in 2020/21 according to our latest forecasts,
“This will put under the viability of thousands of SME commercial construction businesses and the jobs of the thousands of tradies they employ, unless the Government steps in with measures such as CommunityBuilder.
“We propose that CommunityBuilder would involve the Federal Government providing applicants from the not-for-profit and community sector with grants to fund 25 per cent of the construction, up to a capped amount for example $5M, for facilities such as community centres, toilet blocks, libraries and training centres.
“Our modelling shows that an investment of $3.8B in CommunityBuilder would return a $6.8B boost to GDP and create 13,000 new jobs.” Wawn said.
The MBA is also calling for an extension of the HomeBuilder grants scheme.
Terry Collins