Companies seeking to house workers in temporary accommodation across regional South Australia could have their building works fast-tracked thanks to recent changes to the state planning approval process.
The South Australian government announced amendments to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Regulations that would allow temporary accommodation to be built in regional areas without the need for planning approval, where temporary was defined as up to two years.
State Planning Minister Nick Champion said while building consent and final development approval would still be required, the changes could slice months off the planning process.
One of the first developments to benefit from the changes will be a temporary housing project planned for Burra in the state's mid-north.
The proposed accommodate will house at least 300 workers employed on major renewables projects in the area including Neoen's Goyder Renewables Zone, the Geranium Plains Solar Farm and ElectraNet's SA-NSW interconnector.
Battle for accommodation
Mr Champion said the changes would also ease pressure on housing in regional areas with tight rental markets, and make it easier for workers to live near to their work sites.
"All of these projects are going to generate a lot of employment in the region which is good, but it means a lot of people coming in to the region and obviously that can really displace people out of existing rental markets, existing caravan parks and motels," he said.
"Making this amendment will support industry to engage workers and complete projects faster while reducing housing pressure in our regional communities."
Regional Council of Goyder Mayor Bill Gebhardt said the housing shortage in the Goyder region was exacerbated by the influx of temporary workers on the state's renewables projects.
"We're really battling for accommodation and this is our last ditch effort to try to accommodate all these workers.
"We had no options for the workers. They were going to Clare and going to a fairly big radius, and if we can keep them locally it's better for travelling time and it's better for them."
Mr Gebhardt said building workers' accommodation at two approved sites at Hall Terrace and Pistol Club Road, both in close proximity to the town centre, would benefit the community.
"We want to keep them in Goyder, too, so that local businesses thrive. That's what it's all about really," he said.
"It's an abnormal amount of workers we've got here. Everything's really in a good position."
Mr Gebhardt said he expected the temporary houses to be ready by the end of March.
Opportunity for expansion
Mr Champion said while the Goyder Council would be the first to benefit from the amendments, other councils and companies from across the state had the opportunity to apply for the temporary housing.
"I would imagine that there’d be various towns that are trying to deal with labour market shortages," he said.
"Some of the coastal towns, I think, would be smaller efforts based around hospitality workers.
"But there will be other big regional employers, particularly abattoirs, and certainly big industrial employers in some of those regional cities who might avail themselves of this to deal with short-term worker demand."
Mr Champion said the change would also allow for broader construction work to be included in the regulation, which could extend to replacement dwellings for those affected by the Riverland floods.
