By Melissa Coleman
Southern Downs Regional Council Mayor Vic Pennisi attended the Queensland Housing Summit last week to table the council’s innovated solutions on how to meet the critical housing needs in our region.
The Queensland Housing Summit provided an opportunity for wide range of peak industry bodies, non-government providers and private sector stakeholders to explore ways to address the housing challenges based on their local knowledge.
SDRC Mayor Vic Pennisi said the biggest take away was the meaningful engagement with the local government.
“All the information and ideas that were tabled need to be collated and then the government will formulate strategies based on our recommendations.”
“While they were sympathetic to the needs of individual communities, at the end of the day we are in the cold phase.”
“You’re not going to get solutions at the site,” he said.
While more mediation and implementation needs to take place Mayor Pennisi said he can see opportunity to resolve issues that have been bubbling for some time.
Discussions into the lack of tradesmen in the construction sector and the length of time it takes to build houses was also tabled during the Summit.
“Builders are booked for a year in advance, and there’s a serious lack of qualified tradesmen.”
“Skills development and better utilisation of infrastructure that already exists was a solution bought forward,” he said.
“Our focus is on providing concrete solutions that provide the opportunity to be constructive, that’s what the concept was about last week.”
“If I’m invited to go to any meetings in the future, I’ll definitely be attending,” he said.
The Palaszczuk Government has promised to deliver a “concrete plan” as soon as possible.
