Homeowners in areas where major flooding poses a “catastrophic risk to life” in New South Wales’s northern rivers region will be eligible to sell their property to the government as part of a long-awaited $800m housing scheme.
Anthony Albanese and the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, will announce the plan in Lismore on Friday, almost nine months after residents used dinghies to save each other from roofs as flood water rose to never-before-seen levels in February and March.
Homeowners in the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed LGAs will also be able to apply for grants to help cover the costs of having their houses raised, retrofitted or repaired.
About 2,000 homeowners are expected to qualify for measures in the Northern Rivers Resilient Homes Fund package. The measures will be based on property assessments, flood data, risks and future flood predictions.
The prime minister said the scheme would leave people safer in future flooding that would be “more frequent and more severe due to climate change”.
“We know this repeated, relentless flooding can be emotionally and financially draining and we want communities to know we will be there to support them now, and as they recover,” Albanese said.
Eligible homeowners will be offered grants of up to $100,000 to raise their houses, or $50,000 to retrofit homes, in areas where such improvements would make a difference during a flood and in recovery.
Perrottet acknowledged that many in the region had “suffered for too long” and hoped the program provided some relief in a week when much of the state had been on flood watch.
“We are stepping up to provide options for residents to move out of harm’s way and protect themselves and their families but we cannot continue to build back as we have in the past,” he said.
“We will work with the northern rivers community to ensure repairs, retrofitting and voluntary buybacks are undertaken in a way that will better protect people and their homes from future flood events.”
The state government has faced criticism over its handling of the floods and many residents in the region felt abandoned by the state. Hundreds of people are still displaced and unable to live in their flood-damaged properties.
The NSW government, in partnership with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation, will spend $100m to buy land in “flood safe” areas for future development. Expressions of interest to find suitable sites is already open.
The NSW flood recovery minister, Steph Cooke, said this was important so people who choose to move will be able to do so to areas where “they can start their lives anew, not from scratch”.
Buybacks were a recommendation of the independent inquiry into the flooding, conducted by Prof Mary O’Kane and Mick Fuller.
Residents had expected details of the scheme when Perrottet was in Lismore in August, when he released the flood report and announced how the government would change its emergency responses in the wake of the disaster.
Some, like South Lismore homeowner Harper Dalton, have been pushing for a scheme allowing residents to sell their land back to the government and keep and relocate their homes to higher ground.
The new scheme will cover insured and uninsured homes. Outstanding insurance settlements will be deducted from the sale price.
The federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, said the costs of future flood disasters would be mitigated if the right investments were made.
“We know that being prepared for future disasters is a huge boost when it comes to the damage and long-term recovery of the region,” he said.
“Investing in resilience measures in the home can significantly reduce the effort, cost and time to recover from disasters.”
To be eligible, people must own a home that was directly damaged by flood waters or as a result of landslip during the February and March events.
Outreach for the scheme will begin within weeks.
