Housing reform must fix electricity connections and expand competition

The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) welcomes the Productivity Commission’s housing reform agenda and calls for stronger electricity infrastructure planning and an expanded role for Accredited Service Providers

NECA has welcomed the Productivity Commission’s interim report on housing supply regulation, while warning that planning reform will not deliver the homes Australia needs unless electricity infrastructure delivery, connection processes and workforce capacity are addressed at the same time.

NECA Chief Executive Officer Stewart Joyce said the Commission had correctly recognised that enabling infrastructure, including electricity and telecommunications, is essential to the delivery of housing stock. Infrastructure planning must be coordinated with housing growth from the outset. The Commission also identifies simplicity, certainty, transparency, consistency, timeliness and efficiency as important principles for the delivery of housing enabling infrastructure.

“A planning approval is not a finished home. Every new house, apartment building and housing precinct ultimately needs electricity, communications infrastructure and skilled electrical contractors capable of delivering that work safely and efficiently,” Mr Joyce said.

“Electricity capacity and connection requirements need to be planned alongside housing approvals. They cannot be treated as an issue to be resolved at the end of the development process.”

The Commission recommends stronger coordination between governments, regulators and infrastructure service providers, including clearer responsibility for the timely delivery of infrastructure and better sequencing between infrastructure upgrades, rezoning and housing development.

Mr Joyce said this was an important reform direction, but governments should go further by increasing competition in the delivery of electricity connections.

“NECA believes Accredited Service Provider schemes that deliver developers' choice, efficiency, and flexibility should be expanded so that more connections and network-related work can be delivered through qualified, competitive electrical contractors rather than being unnecessarily retained within monopoly network businesses.”

“Greater use of Accredited Service Providers can increase capacity, improve customer choice and introduce genuine competitive pressure into infrastructure delivery. That is exactly the type of productivity reform governments should be pursuing if they are serious about getting homes connected faster.”

Mr Joyce said regulated electricity networks should ensure that developers can plan their projects with the certainty that capacity will be available and that their projects won’t be unnecessarily delayed by procurement or workforce constraints outside of their control. 

“Network businesses have an essential role, but that role should be to engage early in essential infrastructure planning and enable the investment in efficient and timely connections, not to retain work that capable private contractors could deliver.”

“Where work can safely and efficiently be undertaken through an accredited competitive market, governments should be looking to expand and enable that market. Housing and economic policy should harness the capacity of the electrical contracting industry to increase productivity, not limit it.”

Mr Joyce said this approach should be accompanied by transparent network capacity information, predictable technical requirements, measurable connection performance and effective escalation mechanisms when delays arise.

“Housing providers need certainty about where capacity exists, what upgrades will be required, how long a connection will take and who is responsible for delivering each part of the process.”

“That certainty will reduce delay, improve investment decisions and allow developers to plan labour and resources much more effectively.”

NECA also warned that any significant acceleration in housing construction will place additional pressure on an electrical workforce already required to support major infrastructure, renewable energy, batteries, data centres and the broader electrification of the economy.

“Increasing housing approvals is important, but approvals alone do not create construction capacity.”

“Governments must ensure the workforce and training system can support the additional housing pipeline. That means more apprentices, greater training capacity, more qualified trainers and policies that incentivise electrical contractors to grow their businesses and develop their workforce.”

Mr Joyce said NECA would engage with the Productivity Commission as it develops its final recommendations.

“NECA supports the objective of building more homes, more quickly. Our message is that electricity infrastructure and the contractors who deliver it must be treated as part of the housing solution from the beginning.”

“If we plan electricity infrastructure earlier, expand the Accredited Service Provider model, and allow genuine competition to do more of the work, we can improve productivity and help turn housing approvals into completed homes earlier.”