As projects across the Mid West create a rise in demand for housing to accommodate workers, power and water connection delays seem to be holding up the building process.
Regional Development Minister Don Punch made an appearance at a housing forum in Geraldton on Monday, with stakeholders in the building industry having their say on the way forward.
The focus was on keeping up with demand for workforce accommodation and other residential housing as major projects across the region are planned or currently in progress.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said there were only four building approvals in April, and the lack in approvals was due to the current delay in power and water supply, as well as rebuilding from COVID, the current housing market and resource challenges.
Shadow housing minister Steve Martin said the State Government needed to pay attention to the current delays to power and water supplies and encouraged finding a solution.
“I don’t understand how you can possibly wait six months for someone to do an inspection and give the tick that power can be turned on,” he said.
“I haven’t heard anything from the Housing Minister or the Government that indicates there’ll be a solution to that.”
Mr Martin said given the importance of the region to the State’s future economy, more needed to be done to make Geraldton a thriving city.
“Some of the delays around getting the power turned on, or even turned off apparently, are staggeringly bad, stretching out to months and months and months to get jobs completed or started,” he said.
Mr Punch said the State Government was doing everything they could to increase supply chain access and workers, agreeing there was a clear issue that needed to be worked through.
“There’s a real lead time in terms of getting transformers into the State and equipment that Western Power use in terms of making connections on new developments,” he said.
“They’re working as quickly as they can, but there is a supply chain backlog.”
Western Power said average timeframes range from three months to nine months and the company was prioritising design on the civil practical completion date.
“We are experiencing resourcing challenges that are impacting timeframes for reviewing and approving developers’ designs. This is driven by an increase in market demand for construction and design services, as well as supply chain constraints,” they said.