Simon Mumford
26 December 2022, 7:05 PM
Recently, the Lismore App had its regular catch-up with David Witherdin CEO of Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC) to get an end-of-year wrap and ask for a self-assessment on the work that has been done since the NRRC 1 July 2022 when the corporation officially started its duties. This is Part 1.
"Certainly, the first of July seems like a long time ago now, since we kicked off. But I think we've got to be reasonably happy with the progress we've made in that time," Mr Witherdin said.
"In terms of the fact that we've built a team here at NRRC absolutely from scratch. We've got some enormous capability within that team."
Since July 1st, Mr Witherdin has hired about 30 people which includes a lot of local people.
"In terms of the capability we have within the team, outstanding, in terms of motivation to really make a difference, it's just so strong. I've worked with some really exceptional teams over many years but what we've got here, and the why, in terms of what we do is just so clear, so that's really brought people together and people who really want to be part of making a difference here."
Mr Witherdin reaffirmed the large amount of funding involved in the Northern Rivers rebuild with the Resilient Lands and Resilient Homes Programs, $800 million in total.
"Never has anything of this size been on the table here, notwithstanding that ongoing history of floods, whilst this was certainly the biggest one. We have really got an opportunity to do things differently in an adaptation sense."
"There's certainly been a whole lot spent before that program rolled out but that was just all about recovery, not about preparing for the future. The Resilient Homes Program is about trying to get ahead of future events. So we can get people out of those highest-risk areas in terms of voluntary purchase. The fact that we've secured that is a really important thing."
"Then we're certainly doing work on the other streams of our work around the economic recovery around the resilience of infrastructure, as well. One of the important roles we undertake is that infrastructure coordination role across both state government and local government there because we know there's such a myriad of projects. The last thing we want is state government agencies or even councils competing against each other for what's a really limited contractor pool. We know there are challenges there in terms of materials, so we've got that single point of overview around that. We're looking around two and a half thousand reconstruction projects in the infrastructure sense, about five and a half billion dollars."
"So, enormous challenges are ahead of us, but enormous opportunity, when you look at the economic investment in this area. We have a real opportunity to build back better and I think right across the seven local governments and all of the state government agencies, there's really good cooperation in terms of the way that's working"
With the NSW Government relaxing the regulations for interstate tradies to work in NSW, will that help with the infrastructure backlog?
"I think it will absolutely help but I think there are some challenges we've still got at the moment around the availability of accommodation for tradies and as we start to roll out parts of the Resilient Homes program, like the house raising, the resilient refitting, on top of all the infrastructure rebuilt, in terms of schools, wastewater treatment plants, roads, that's gonna get more and more challenging. So, there's certainly work we've got to do in that space."
Last week saw the final two NRRC community forums in Lismore which has seen more than 1100 people attend around the area. As for registrations for the Resilient Homes Program. either through the Flood Assessment Program or those that registered through the NRRC website, the total is more than 5,500 just under the anticipated 6000.
As mentioned previously, the Call Centre is set up and now Case Managers are being allocated to participants with early calls being made to the highest priority homeowners.
"We're finding that even in that initial call is taking on average about 35 minutes and not because of the information we're requesting, but many people really want to take that opportunity to tell their story as well. We certainly consider that a really important investment in time because we can capture all the detail from that, so when they're working with their case manager, they don't have to tell that story over and over again."
"We're scaling up around that program and all of the early assessments we're looking at those as individual pilots. So, we can sort of quickly review, learn, and then in the new year, really ramp up, how we're moving through those so that we can ensure that system works as quickly as possible because front of mind for us is that people certainly want to know are they eligible for any component of the program? If so, which program? And if they're ineligible is just as important because then it enables them to make particular decisions around their circumstances."
"We're using this opportunity, the very early part of the new year to get a really good feel around how long each of the assessments are taking, what we'll need to do to scale up to ensure we can accelerate through that as quickly as possible."
In terms of timelines, when can we expect to hear that the first house purchase has been completed?
"It depends, certainly on a number of factors, and I think one of the key ones is how quickly the homeowner wants to move. Some of the feedback we're getting is once they've got that call, they're like, oh, okay, so they don't want to rush right into it either which I think is quite interesting. I think it's well within our expectations by the end of February we certainly should be in a position to close some voluntary purchases out within that timeframe."
Once a voluntary house purchase agreement has been agreed and signed, what does that mean for the homeowners in terms of settlement periods?
"Once the independent evaluations have been done, we've got an agreement and signed up that deed, we can negotiate what that settlement period is. So, maybe it's that people want to stay in the home for 12 months or 18 months or even two years, which I think is well within the bounds of reasonableness. People can then sit there and consider their options, they may want to relocate their house."
"Hopefully, in that time we can open the supply up so they're not rushed into doing something and that's assuming that they're living in there at the moment. Once we reach that agreement and they want to close that out we can really quickly exchange funds around that. But what we want to ensure is that we create pathways to keep people within community and connected to part of community. If we process all of these voluntary purchases and people just flee the Northern Rivers, I think that'd be a really undesirable outcome. So, certainly, that time frame is very negotiable.
The perception from a lot of the community is that progress has been slow although you do get the feeling that people have more of an understanding of the size and scale of the background work that needs to be planned in order to take those first steps forward. It does sound like the first quarter of 2023 is when we, as a community, will see more action with decisions and agreements being made.
"We should have a good feel for how long it'll take us to sort of work through all streams of the program. But yeah, front of mind for us. We'll be doing what we can to tweak that program to really get people an outcome as quickly as possible. And I think for many, even though they may want an extended settlement, they may want to consider their options, knowing they've got that money there on the table with a deed of agreement will be a game changer."
"In terms of psychology, I think, knowing that there's an agreement there to raise your house, there's funding there to do that, will similarly be really well received."
The issue of market constraints is what Mr Witherdin and his team are working through. There are three big house-raising contractors in the Northern Rivers and Southeast Queensland so to double or triple their capacity in the short term so they can raise about 2000 homes needs planning and assurance. Mathematically, 2000 homes in five years is 400 per year or 8 homes per day which is a tall order considering the annual numbers are about 150.