Major milestones in disaster recovery for Northern Rivers

AUSTRALIA’S largest disaster adaptation project on the Northern Rivers has moved into its next phase, with tailored home assessments available to make homes more resilient against flooding.

Under the Home Raising and Home Retrofit stream of the $790 million Resilient Homes Program, approximately 370 homeowners within Northern Rivers, have been identified as eligible for home raising or retrofit.

A key recommendation of the NSW Flood Inquiry, home raising reduces risk by raising homes to reduce the frequency of potential flood related damage, while home retrofits reduce risk by refurbishing homes to better withstand flooding.

After receiving their free in-home assessment report, homeowners can appoint their builder of choice to deliver works suitable to their home to make it more resilient to future flooding.

Eligible homeowners will be granted up to $50,000 for a home retrofit and $100,000 for a home raise with a dollar-for dollar co-contribution between the RA and homeowners, up to a maximum of $100,000 for retrofits and $200,000 for home raising.

State MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery Janelle Saffin said “As chair of the Community Leaders forum I am enormously pleased to see input from that group included in announcements like today.”

“Feedback from the community has helped the NSW Reconstruction Authority to develop a more people-friendly, place-based approach to determine eligibility for key programs like the Resilient Homes Program. That is a good thing.

“Repeat visits by my parliamentary colleagues show the reset is progressing in the Northern Rivers and the NSW Government is in this recovery for the long haul.”

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said “As part of our commitment to disaster mitigation, there’s already been significant progress with the Resilient Homes Program, but there is still more to do”.

“As of June 28, 788 buyback offers had been approved and 656 offers accepted, which represents an 83 per cent take-up rate”.