Around $35 million of work is expected to go to tender over the next six months as the Northern Territory Government rolls out its $100 million Public Housing Stimulus Program.
The first of the projects have been awarded and one job has already been completed after the program was announced in November 2018.
Works will include construction, plumbing, electrical, painting, roofing, fencing and security installations.
It aims to provide major and minor upgrade public housing properties, providing work for registered contractors in the territory.
In 2018, a previous stimulus worth $69 million generated work for more than 220 territory contractors at around 3000 public housing properties and resulted in more than 250 vacant properties returned to public housing stock.
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NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said creating jobs was the territory government’s number one priority.
“This stimulus is part of our plan to boost spending within the construction industry in order to support small businesses,” Gunner said.
“Generating work for tradies is just one of the ways we are working to build a robust and sustainable economy for all Territorians.”
Master Builders NT Chief Executive Dave Malone called the stimulus a good investment by the taxpayer and a very positive start to 2019 for hundreds of small firms.
“It is crucial that businesses in this market register for these opportunities,” Malone said.
“Investing $100 million in upgrades will underpin as many as 550 full-time jobs but this program will support more than a thousand tradies in some way over the life of the program.”
Trevor Miller from MWK Constructions, a small business with three employees, said the stimulus is a win-win for everyone.
“We always use local subcontractors such as plumbers, electricians and cable technicians and we buy from local suppliers, so the flow-on effect means everyone benefits,” he said.