More than 2100 jobs secured so far as part of massive new investment in Housing

NSW Housing Minister David Borger today announced that more than 2,100 jobs have been secured in NSW in the last three months as a direct result of the Federal Government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan.

“These local jobs are spread throughout the State – so many people in many different areas in NSW are already benefiting from this investment,” Mr Borger said

“What it means in simple terms is that contractors and tradies are working which means they have an impact on the local economy and means they can afford to keep feeding themselves and their families – that’s how critical this investment really is.

“The Federal Government is investing two billion dollars as part of its Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan to build more than 6,000 new social housing homes in NSW.

“On top of this, the NSW Government is also investing one billion dollars to build another 3,000 new homes.

“At a time when we are facing a global recession and there are job cuts nation wide, this is a tangible example that our massive investment in the construction industry is paying off.”

Federal Tanya Plibersek said the Rudd Government’s $6.4 billion investment to build 20,000 social housing dwellings will stimulate the building and construction industry and has been estimated by Treasury to support 15,000 jobs nationally over the next two years.

“Nearly 70 percent of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan is infrastructure and these construction projects are now underway,” Ms Plibersek said.

“When the stimulus package gets up to full steam in about 12 months, there will be around 35,000 individual construction projects around the country.

“It’s not just about jobs for builders and tradespeople but also associated industries such as building manufacturers and suppliers who help keep the Australian economy ticking over.”

Mr Borger said 418 of the jobs were secured as part of stage one construction and 1714 from maintenance work – both key elements of the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan for social housing.

“Last month the Commonwealth announced that $225 million would be invested in NSW as part of stage one construction,” Mr Borger said.

“We know we need to move quickly – the homes that are funded through stage one need to be ready for tenants to move in by July 2010. That’s why the NSW Government has already started work on 32 separate projects across the state.

“Another important part of the Stimulus Plan is the new investment in repairs and maintenance and NSW has been allocated $130.4 million under the Plan.

“This is in addition to $200 million that the Premier brought forward last year for maintenance to further support employment for more than 2,500 builders and tradespeople in NSW.

“We know that an extra 1,714 contractors are currently working on Stimulus-related maintenance work and this is expected to rise to around 3,100 people as work continues across the state.

“This is great news as many of these companies were considering the real possibility of having to lay off staff but now they are putting on extra staff to meet the new demand.”