Housing Resources
An address at Birkdale by the Minister of Housing (Mr Rae) should help to convince everybody of the need for more caution in assessing New Zealand's housing requirements. So high a proportion of new housing costs is borne by the State, either directly or through cheap finance, that miscalculations of demand are bound to affect the taxpayer, and not only the limited classes of private speculators, builders, or home-owners who suffered through earlier gluts Mr Rae wisely emphasised the big increase of untenanted homes between the 1951 and 1956 censuses and the large numbers of houses each occupied by only one or two persons. In its election policy the National Party promised to encourage fuller use of old but still serviceable houses, to assist the redevelopment of central urban area-, and to “ give particular attenti< n “to the building of multi- “ storey accommodation in
“the main centres”. By a fortunate coincidence Mr Rae’s address was reported during the annual conference of the Town and Country Planning Institute. Speakers at this conference directed public attention afresh not only to the problems with which the Government is concerned but to the solutions which the professional planners ■ ust provide. Al] the arguments against urban sprawl and in favour of conserving land resources have been canvassed so often that they should not need repeating; but they are none the less cogent and compelling. Already, according to the president of the institute (Mr D. G. Porter), “the climate of opinion is “ changing ”. The change is likely to be accelerated when the results of the most recent census are known; but the primary responsibility will still fall on the Government to ’revent waste and inefficient planning.
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Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 14
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282Housing Resources Press, Volume C, Issue 29503, 3 May 1961, Page 14
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