housing ·
Where will the people who build our city live?
Major projects need workers, and workers need homes. We are proposing a regional modular housing plan to support our workforce today and provide community housing for the future.
A Regional Workforce Accommodation Plan for Southern Tasmania
Major projects bring opportunity—but only if we have the workforce and accommodation needed to deliver them.
At a recent HIA workforce impact briefing, elected members and industry representatives discussed the significant shortage of skilled tradespeople likely to affect construction across Greater Hobart. This is not simply a stadium issue. Housing construction, civil works, commercial development and essential infrastructure will all be competing for the same limited workforce.
The challenge is regional, and the response should be regional too.
I believe Hobart should bring together southern councils, the Housing Industry Association, the construction sector and the Tasmanian Government to investigate a temporary modular accommodation precinct for skilled workers coming into the region.
Industry representatives indicated that around 500 additional tradespeople may be needed during peak demand. Without suitable accommodation, we risk driving up rents, placing further pressure on local housing and making it harder to attract the workers required to deliver major projects.
A staged modular development could provide safe, affordable and practical accommodation for workers during the construction peak. It could include shared facilities, transport connections and appropriate management arrangements, while being designed so that the buildings can later be relocated or repurposed.
That long-term planning is critical.
Once the peak construction period has passed, the modular units could be converted or reused for transitional housing, homelessness services, crisis accommodation, student accommodation, seasonal workers or other community needs.
In other words, we could meet an immediate workforce need while creating a lasting public benefit.
This initiative would require careful investigation. Questions of location, funding, ownership, planning, transport, management and future use would all need to be resolved. However, these are precisely the conversations a capital city should be leading.
Hobart cannot solve the region’s workforce and housing challenges alone. Nor should each council attempt to develop a separate response.
A collaborative southern councils initiative would allow us to share expertise, identify suitable sites, approach government with a united proposal and ensure that the benefits extend across the region.
This is the type of practical regional leadership I believe Hobart should provide.
The role of Lord Mayor is not simply to comment on problems after they arise. It is to bring councils, government and industry together early enough to solve them.
With major investment coming to southern Tasmania, we must plan not only for the buildings we want to construct, but also for the people who will build them—and for the community needs that will remain long after the cranes have gone.
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