La Trobe Valley construction company builds 22 social housing dwellings

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Under the Nation Building – Economic Stimulus Plan $1.17 billion funding will be provided for the building of approximately 4,500 new social housing dwellings across Victoria. The new dwellings, which are expected to be completed by June 2012, will provide a much needed boost to public housing and housing administered by the not –for- profit community stocks across the state.

Of those being built, twenty-two will be built by BF Neilson Builders in the La Trobe Valley at a cost of $6 million.

Alan Whitty, Director of BF Neilson Builders, says the Social Housing Initiative project has helped to keep his company’s level of work up in the local area as well as enabled it to keep on some staff who may otherwise have not been required.

“We are currently building 22 homes in the La Trobe Valley through the funding, which is about 15 per cent of our year’s work,” he says.

“Nation Building has put a lot of pressure on us due to its tight timelines, but it’s also kept about 10 to twelve people on the books that I probably wouldn’t have needed”.

“Of those we’ve been able to keep on, a couple of them are apprentices, and we’re big on apprentices, so it’s great to be able to give them a shot,” said Mr Whitty.

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