Press Release – Christchurch City Council

Christchurch City Council’s Community, Recreation and Culture Committee has agreed that up to 22 new social housing units should be built on vacant land in existing complexes and repairs completed on almost 300 social housing units by the end of …Friday 15 March 2013

Committee approves plans for new social housing developments

Christchurch City Council’s Community, Recreation and Culture Committee has agreed that up to 22 new social housing units should be built on vacant land in existing complexes and repairs completed on almost 300 social housing units by the end of this year.

The committee today also agreed to:

* Ask staff to report back in May with a detailed programme for the repair and rebuild of its social housing facilities, with the possibility of reducing the five-year programme to three years.

* Invite the Minister for EQC to discuss with the Council how its social housing assessment and insurance settlement process could be sped up.

* Ask staff to investigate interim housing options that would restore its social housing levels to pre-earthquake levels in the short-term.

Community, Recreation and Culture Committee Chair Yani Johanson says this is a clear steer that the repair and rebuild of social housing units is a high priority. “From my point of view, the committee has been very proactive in making the repair and rebuild of Council’s social housing complexes a top priority. Staff have taken on board our concerns and are now working hard to speed up assessments and look at how we can go faster with repairs. We would agree that we need to go quicker but we are certainly on the right track. I welcome the opportunity to meet with the Minister of EQC to look at how we can go faster.”

Following today’s meeting, the committee has asked for a special Council meeting on 21 March so that it can go ahead with a tender to build up to 12 new one-bedroom units on the Maurice Carter Courts in Spreydon and up to 10 new one-bedroom units in Knightsbridge Lane in Aranui. If the Council approves the project next week, a tender will go out immediately.

At its 5 February meeting, the committee asked staff to report back on how the social housing repair process could be fast tracked further to ensure 300 units are repaired or built by the end of this year.

In addition to building 22 proposed new units, staff today outlined plans to repair a total of 272 units.

This includes:

* Repairing a total of 202 units that are currently occupied.

* A total of 70 units that cannot currently be occupied will be repaired and re-opened by the end of this year. The remainder of the units that cannot be occupied need significant repairs or engineering investigations. However, staff will be seeking to reach an agreed position from EQC and insurers on the complexes by the end of this year.

The Council is also taking other steps to increase the number of available social housing units including:

* Progressing plans to build another 12 new units on two other social housing complex sites. It is expected these units will be completed by the end of 2014.

* Exploring public/private partnership opportunities to repair and build new units.

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