Call for regulatory reforms to improve housing resilience

The
Building Stronger Homes Roundtable wants codes, standards, and land use
planning systems revised to promote housing resilience.

The roundtable
was established by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and Master Builders
Australia (MBA) to discuss policy changes that make buildings throughout
Australia more resilient.

ICA chief
executive officer Andrew Hall said increased collaboration was needed between industry,
government, and the community to boost building resilience.

“At present, there is no system in place in Australia to assess and record the level of resilience in a building, making it difficult for insurers to adjust premiums accordingly.

“While new
homes need to be built to be more resilient, it is imperative they remain
affordable and that new homeowners are able to enter the market,” Mr Hall said.

He was
speaking at the third roundtable held in Sydney recently and attended by representatives
from the state and federal government; Standard Australia; the Australian
Building Codes Board; and the real estate and architecture industries.

The
representatives recommended:

• Simpler
  and cost-effective access to standards for builders and inspectors to support
  compliance;
• Land
  use planning reforms that better incorporate the experience and insights of the
  insurance and building industries in the aftermath of natural disasters;
• Increased
  government incentives to invest in resilience measures when building new homes
  to improve their durability;
• Development
  of resilience information tools that assist the industry and consumers in
  building more resilient homes; and
• Establishment
  of an information-sharing hub between the government and the industry to share
  risk information, land planning data, and building experience.

The
Building Stronger Homes Roundtable will hold its final meeting in June 2021.