HOMES FOR RENTAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 89, 3 February 1947, Page 5

HOMES FOR RENTAL

BRITISH BUILDING TREND URGENT NEEDS FIRST The Briton who needs a house the most must have one first. The man who wants to buy one, even if he has the money in the bank to pay for it, must wait. Houses are being built in the ratio of four by local authorities to one by private builders —that is, roughly, four to let for each one for sale. This housing policy of the Labour Government has been stoutly defended in the House of Commons debate by Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan, despite vigorous protests from the Opposition benches. Housing equipment, Mr Bevan said—bricks, tiles, baths, cookers, and so on—is being produced at the rate of 200,000 houses a year. Connecting links were distributive and building industries, both in private hands, and large amounts of materials were not reaching the houses for which they were intended. Scores of thousands of building workers, Mr Bevan said, were engaged in draining away materials on non-essential work. The explanation of that, he said, lies in the field of “private economic adventure.”

Mr Bevan then proceeded to attack his Conservative critics for not putting aside party politics and backing his “roofs by Christmas” campaign.

Opposition Protests

Amidst Tory protests, he charged the Opposition and press with a lack of co-operation in keeping up the morale of the building industry. The Opposition argument put by Barister Maningham-Buller was that thousands of persons were enduring appalling conditions in the country as well as in town. There would be more houses for more people to occupy if the Minister had not imposed this one-in-four rule. There were no new permanent houses in his own constituency nor in constituencies of 10 other Cabinet Ministers, he said. If the Minister wanted more houses built the must give more freedom of action to private enterprise and reduce the ratio of four-for-rent to one-for-sale.

Despite all arguments for and against private enterprise in getting houses built, one fact which remained unexplained and uncnallenged at the end of debate was that houses were built more quickly by the private builder -working for himself under license than when he was working for the local authority under contract. In Mr Bevan’s words the private builder had “greater incentive to push on with work on. his own account.”