Strata body backs call for resilience reforms
Strata communities are on the front line of the nation’s resilience battle, facing rising costs, declining coverage and slow recoveries, according to Strata Community Association Australasia.
Economic pressures are driving up construction and repair costs, leaving households, businesses and strata schemes struggling to rebuild after disasters, the association’s president Joshua Baldwin says.
He says the Insurance Council of Australia’s Catastrophe Resilience Report, released this month, underscores mounting insurance pressures and the growing urgency to protect communities from disaster.
Aside from climate risk, the cost of rebuilding post-disaster is being compounded by inflation, labour shortages, material costs and housing constraints.
In high-risk regions, recurring disasters are eroding resilience and deepening vulnerability.
Mr Baldwin says SCA supports the Insurance Council’s call for co-ordinated long-term reform, with greater investment in resilience infrastructure, stronger and more resilient buildings in safer locations, and removal of insurance taxes.