NSW floods: just 11% of applications approved for buybacks and no homes retrofitted nearly 20 months on

Exclusive: Residents liken the administration of the government’s $700m recovery program to ‘a script from Utopia’

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Only one in 10 flood-affected homeowners in the New South Wales northern rivers who applied for assistance have received a guarantee their house will be purchased by the government, and not a single person has had their home retrofitted or raised.

Nearly 20 months after the flood disaster, figures obtained by Guardian Australia reveal just 11% of the 5,001 applications made in the Tweed, Byron and Lismore councils under the government’s $700m recovery program had been approved for a buyback.

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