Andrew Riggs interview on 2BS Brekky with Pecky - 20 March 2026

Kerry Peck: One of the things that's happening, of course, is the growth in the Central West. The growth also around the Oberon area, of course, The Pines Wind Farm and also, of course, Borg Industries,Mayfield Gardens. It really is a growing area at this stage. And, of course, renewable housing and housing is always a problem in these areas and on the phone this morning is Andrew Riggs from TagEnergy, good morning sir.

Andrew Riggs: Good morning, thank you pleasure to be with you again.

Kerry Peck: The housing that you guys are talking about at the moment will, of course, suit some of the people that will be involved in the construction of the wind towers, but then after that happens, there will be a transition to make affordable housing available.

Andrew Riggs: Yes, indeed, Pecky, that's right. Last week, we were really excited to launch at our regular council update in Oberon a strategy that we've been developing now for about a year on how we can contribute to housing security and housing affordability in all of the projects that we implement.

We looked very deeply into the Oberon Council's housing strategy. It was released in November. And we saw that there was two areas wec ould contribute to. Those two big areas, first one is diversity of, and you highlight that there's a variety of workforce, and in particular an ageing population in that locality. And then, there's a deficit of housing, which is smaller, let's say, easier to maintain, easier to live in, not having three, four bedrooms with empty ones. So, what we realised was we could divert some of the money that we'd otherwise spend on temporary accommodation into permanent accommodation. And so we set out with a plan to find someone to do that. And this is where we actually addressed the second item from the Oberon Council.What we actually found was we could get an affordable housing expert, BlueCHP, they're a not-for-profit that does this all over the East Coast. They've got about 2,000 people in affordable, social and disability housing. We've actually partnered with them to deliver this program, and they'll own the homes. We'll give a charitable donation to actually facilitate it. They will build them.They will manage them. We will use them for the first part of the workforce during the construction. And then they'll go back to BlueCHP in perpetuity, permanent homes for Oberon.

Kerry Peck: Yeah. And I take it this has been successful in other areas of course, is it?

Andrew Riggs: Well we hope to be the first.

Kerry Peck: Oh, good.

Andrew Riggs: I think we're the first. We've worked quite hard with our industry partners to find if there's other examples we could learn from. And what we found was, in this space, it was typically government grants that were facilitating the affordable housing. and you know one of the happy things with renewable energy these days is it's actually cost competitive in its own right, it doesn't require subsidies and that's not something that's sort of new for the community that might come as a surprise to some of your listeners and because the industry has evolved over the last decade and is now the cheapest, we can actually divert some of our income into producing these great programs for the communities that host us.

Kerry Peck: Are there other companies out there that are sort of studying this concept and sort of looking at it thinking, okay, they're going down this path, perhaps we should look at it as well?

Andrew Riggs: Yeah, quite right, Pecky. We have two different industry associations that, my phone's been ringing off the hook for the last week with congratulations for getting out in front and trying to do this for our host communities. I'm more than happy to share how we've done it.There's no secret. We're just taking temporary accommodation money and putting it into permanent accommodation money. Of course, we're leaning in a little bit as it affects the project but that's how you share the benefits of the renewable energy transition.

 Kerry Peck: I think it's a great idea, and as you said, it will benefit the community, of course, down the track, because the housing crisis that we've got at the moment is not going to get easier. So, therefore, anything companies like yourself can do to ease this problem, of course, is going to benefit people in the future.

 Andrew Riggs: Yeah, quite right. Charles Northcote, the CEOof BlueCHP, you'll hear him quote, he'll say, there's no shortage of people looking for affordable housing. And what we mean by affordable housing, it's for those in the community that are on lesser incomes than the median. It's basically an income-tested thing. The important part when you deliver these programs is that these homes can't be substandard homes, obviously. They have to be modern homes that everyone that lives there can be proud of. And we think the program will deliver about 50 individual homes of predominantly two bedrooms, that seems to be what's missing in the Oberon housing stock at the moment and very clearly identified in their housing strategy and even around services and infrastructure of the community which will enhance the community rather than out in the what in where the larger blocks are It's actually harder for folks to get into where the services are, in or single-parent families and that sort of cohort.

 Kerry Peck: All right. Well, keep an eye on that. Thank you very much indeed. I hope to talk to you down the track as it progresses and just get an update on it, if that's okay.

Andrew Riggs: Absolutely, Pecky. We're super proud of it. If anyone wants to find out more about it, jump on our website. The details are there. We'd be delighted to share the good news.

Kerry Peck: Thank you, Andrew. Great to talk to you again.Talk to you later down the track. There we go. Andrew Riggs there, of course, TagEnergy's managing partner, and that's The Pines Wind Farm, a long-term affordable housing in the Oberon area and keep an eye on that.

‍