Three quarters of the Canberra building sites shut down this year because of non-compliant or unapproved construction work have been located in a single Gungahlin suburb, new documents show.
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Taylor, the city's northernmost suburb, is at the epicentre of the ACT government's crackdown of dodgy building work, documents released under freedom of information laws have revealed.
Access Canberra inspectors have this year shut down work at 21 separate work sites in Taylor, one of the capital's newest suburbs.
The revelation has been welcomed by a Gungahlin community leader, who said it was "about bloody time" the government addressed building problems in the rapidly-expanding region.
Inspectors had issued a total of 28 stop work notices as of July 16, the date The Canberra Times applied to access the documents.
The names of the builders, as well as the addresses of the building sites, have been redacted from copies of the stop work notices for privacy reasons.
But other details have been left unaltered, including why and when a building site was shut down, and the suburb in which it was located.
The documents reveal a flurry of enforcement activity in late February and early March, which focused entirely on work sites in Taylor.
The crackdown came as the government faced heightened pressure from industry groups and the community over its historically lax approach to regulating Canberra's construction sector.
Do you know more? Email dan.jervis-bardy@canberratimes.com.au.
Inspectors shut down 17 sites in Taylor alone between February 26 and March 1, the documents showed.
In each case, inspectors found the builders were carrying out work which was "contrary" to construction laws.
On the Friday of that week, Access Canberra published a media release stating that 17 building sites in Gungahlin had been shut down, although it did not disclose which suburbs they were located in.
Three months later, bans on the 17 Taylor sites were lifted, allowing construction work to continue.
Following the week-long blitz in Taylor, a further three sites in the suburb were shut down on April 10.
Four sites were shut down between May 9 and June 11, including two large-scale developments - TP Dynamics' 68-home complex in Bruce and Geocon's massive Republic precinct in Belconnen.
Work has also been halted this year at two sites in Denman Prospect and one each in Lyons, Throsby and Holt, the documents showed.
The Canberra Times sought an explanation from Access Canberra and the office of Building Quality Improvement Minister Gordon Ramsay on why such a high proportion of stop work notices had been issued in one suburb, Taylor.
In response, ACT construction occupations registrar Ben Green said a team of inspectors were dispatched to the Gungahlin suburb after it received complaints from the public about the "practices of some builders".
Mr Green admitted he was concerned that some builders had not complied with construction laws, but said the actions of a small number of practitioners "does not reflect the overall building quality of an entire suburb".
He said the documents released to The Canberra Times provided just a "snapshot in time of one regulatory tool", noting the government had other means of enforcing compliance, such as rectification orders.
Gungahlin Community Council president Peter Elford was not surprised problems had been identified in Taylor, which he described as an "ocean of construction work."
Far from being alarmed by the spate of building site shutdowns, Mr Elford said it was "about bloody time" that the government was holding builders accountable for carrying out shoddy construction work.
"I think there should be an expectation that we are building not just a good Canberra, but a quality Canberra," Mr Elford said.
Master Builders Association of the ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins supported the government's "proactive" approach.
Mr Hopkins called on the government to publicly release more details about site audits, which he said could be used to educate industry.
"If there is a common issue, let's say it's to do with framing, then we want to know about that so we can tailor programs around this," Mr Hopkins said.
"That [information sharing] is one of the missing pieces at the moment."
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
