Flood-devastated homes are among those ruled out of a buyback scheme in the NSW Northern Rivers that appears set to assist fewer households than first forecast.
Amid 6400 registrations for assistance, the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation this week published new maps rating locations across the region based on risk to life in most floods.
Applicants in the highest-risk areas – about 1100 – were being prioritised for buybacks, the agency said.
Another 340 offers to raise or retrofit homes had been made or were planned.
The $700 million resilient home scheme, jointly announced by the federal and NSW government in October, was set to help about 2000 homeowners through raising, repairing, retrofitting or buying back their property.
“This is life-changing for the people of the Northern Rivers and the fairest and most equitable use of the available funding across the region,” a spokesman said.
“Homes in all seven LGAs (local government areas) have been prioritised based on the greatest risk to life in most flood scenarios, with the most homes in Lismore prioritised, followed by Tweed.”
The agency said it was working within its budget guidelines.
“The NRRC will continue to deal with the Australian and NSW governments to find solutions for funding requirements.”
Insurers lauded the buyback offers as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to move people out of harm’s way” following Australia’s largest insurance event.
The February and March 2022 floods across southeast Queensland and northern NSW resulted in 241,000 claims at a cost of nearly $6 billion.
“Managing and reducing risk in communities most exposed to flood risk is critical, and we must continue to make tough and bold decisions to move people permanently out of harm’s way and see greater investment in strengthening resilience across communities,” Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Andrew Hall said.
But community group Resilient Lismore criticised the time the government had taken to release the maps that effectively ruled homes in or out of help.
The 6400 households had not been able to move forward with their recovery as they waited and hoped for a pathway to safety, executive director Elly Bird said.
“The most frustrating thing is that they could have been given that information much earlier,” she said.
“People are rightly angry and upset.
“In Lismore itself, there are a number of houses that were flooded almost to their ceiling who will not be given a way out.”
The mapping is based on computer modelling of the chance of a serious flood happening and its potential effect of that flood.
Homes in the three highest-risk zones will be offered buybacks while those in the fourth zone have been determined suitable for raising or retrofitting.
Those outside all four zones were “not currently proceeding” under the Resilient Homes Program, the agency says.
A $100 million state government program aimed at enticing landowners to sell suitable land to deliver housing options has shortlisted 22 sites.
Purchases are expected to begin in August or September.