Social Housing Economic Recovery Package - Information for trades and businesses

Trades and businesses in the residential construction industry are sought to help deliver the State Government’s Social Housing Economic Recovery Package.
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Work with us

Local trades and businesses are needed to help give the state’s economy a much-needed boost – and we want to hear from you!

Trades and businesses in the residential construction industry are invited to be involved in delivering the State Government’s $319 million Social Housing Economic Recovery Package (SHERP).

What is SHERP?

The SHERP consists of three workstreams including new builds, housing refurbishments and regional property maintenance, delivering a pipeline of works to support the WA construction industry through to 2023.

SHERP works will be delivered across the state, supporting an estimated 1700 jobs, with at least 780 of these in regional areas.

The SHERP was launched by the State Government on 7 June 2020 as part of a $444 million housing stimulus to aid the state’s COVID-19 economic recovery. 

Workforce development

Communities recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to have a significant impact on the Western Australian community.

The Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD) provides a range of resources to enable businesses to diversify their workforce:

Financial incentives are provided by the WA State Government and the Commonwealth Government to support businesses to recruit and train new employees including apprentices and trainees:

Businesses seeking further assistance with workforce development can contact their local DTWD Jobs and Skills Centre on 13 64 64.

Be involved and help us deliver

To help contract work to local trades and businesses as quickly and efficiently as possible, Communities will utilise its existing Head Maintenance Contractors (HMC) for many SHERP projects.  

In these cases, the HMC will act as Communities’ superintendent only and will not be engaged to carry out works themselves.

HMCs will provide project management services, source quotes from suppliers on Communities’ behalf and provide recommendations to Communities about preferred suppliers.

Communities will contract trades and businesses to carry out the works and will ensure an appropriate spread across new and existing suppliers.

Where possible, three out of five of all quoted works will come from local trades that the regional HMC has not previously contracted. In addition, one in five of these quotes will come from a registered Aboriginal organisation, where available.

Communities will also be contracting SHERP construction, refurbishment and maintenance projects through panel arrangements and market tender and quote processes.

Register your interest

Trades and businesses are encouraged to register their interest directly with their local Head Maintenance Contractor listed below.

The HMCs will keep a register of local businesses and will request quotes as maintenance and small-scale refurbishment packages are released under the SHERP.

Some SHERP projects will also be released through market tender processes and will be listed on Tenders WA.

Trades and businesses may choose to register to receive email alerts from Tenders WA. It is recommended that you activate an alert for “Department of Communities” as a specific search term.

Please refer to the Tenders WA Email Alert Setup guide (DOCX 135KB) for instructions.

Want to know more?

Please contact Communities’ SHERP team at housingstimulus@communities.wa.gov.au for further information.

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