DIFFERENT STORY ABOUT LABOUR'S HOUSING

Chronicle (Levin), 2 October 1946, Page 7

DIFFERENT STORY ABOUT LABOUR'S HOUSING

-Press Assnciation

Two-thirds of Building Left to Private Enterprise

By Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, Oct. I. Aspects of tlie Dominion's liousing shortage were debated wlien the House of Eepresentatives resumed tonight with the consideration of the vote for housing construction. Mr. J. T. Watts (Eieearton) said last year a Bill for slujn clearanee was passed by the House but there was no provision in the Estimates for implementing that measure in the next twelve inonths. He realised the difficulty ofi elearing slums when houses were so searce but even a token vote for slura clearanee this year would have been valuable. Several Opposition meinbers quoted

from the Budget statement that the ' ' Government 's housing programme envisages the constructioii pf 12,000 houses per annum during the next five years ' ' and eontrasted this with the target of 4000 State houses yearly gLven by the Minister. Mr. Sempie replied that; the Govern ment had not suggested that State houses alone would rea.ch 12,000 yearly. The Budget iigure was the target for all house construction of which, State houses would form only a part. Last year 9000 houses were built in New Zealand— more than in any previous year — and he felt that it was by no meana impossible to increase that liguro by 3000 yearly. , If materials eaine forward it could be done with the existin'g labour force. Mr. Sempie said efi'orts were being made to obtain more ceinent not only locally but also from all sources. Mr. W. J. Broa,df oot : It was recently announced that Australia had 8000 tons monthly for export. Did you get in on that? ' Mr. Sempie: Yes. The Minister said slum clearanee had already started in a small way. tn Auckland, for instance, some slum buildings had been demolished and modern blocks of flats were being erected on the clearetL sites. What was now wanted was the framing of suitable regulations but for that unity among local authorities was essential. Local authorities were aware of their respou sibilities and he thought slum clearanee would be tackled in the near future. Sections For Sale. Mr. Sempie, answering questions by meinbers, said arrangements had already been made to enable returned servicemcn or civilians to apply for and purchase building sections in blocks 'subdividcd for .State housing. For in stance, at Tamaki where there was room for 8000 houses, private persons could obtain sections to build their owr, hoines on. Sections in such areas would not, liowever, be made available — after all the services had been provided by the Government — for purposes of speculation. Mr. Sempie, answering Atr. E. G. Ger ard (Mid-Canterburyj and others who asked that more State houses be built in eountry eentres, said houses wer^ now uutler construction in 137 difCereut towns, indicating that the building pro.gramme was evenly distributed. Mr. M. H. Oram said in"relalion to population a dispropoyliouate number of .houses was being built in a few large eentres despite the Government 's lip seryice to decentralisation. Mr. W. J. Polson (Stratford) said Mr. Sempie had told the House that a vote of £G,000,U(JU was for 4U00 houses yet in the Budget speech Mr. Nash had said 12,000. Mr. McCombs: Tlie 12,000 was uever stated as State houses. a,ud you know it. Mr. Polson said hej,doubted in any case whether the £6,000,000 would build 4000 houses. He thought tlie houses would cost more than £loU0 eaeh this year for costs were stiil tending to go up. Mr. McCombs said' that when the Government said its housing programme for the year was 12,000 houses that did not mean that 12,000 State houses would be built. ' Mr. Nash said the Opposition was now charging the Government with providing 12,000 houses yearly when the Bud get provision for houses was £7,500,000. That meant a house would cost £62o which was ridiculous. Mr. K. J. Holyoake said it was the deliberate intention of the Minister oJ Finance to create the impression in the Budget that it was the Government '» liousing programme which would build 12,000 lioines yearly. The Minister should never have created that iinpres sion. Wage earners were further away now from earning their own hoines, than tliey were before the Governmenl took oflice. Mr. Nash said the statement by the Member for Pahiatua was misleading liecause everyone knew the Government had not the material or labour resources to build by itself 12,000 houses thi? year. The Government had never contemplated tliat programme. Mr. F. W. Doidge (Tauranga) said it had been claimed inside and outside the House by Government members that the Government would build 12,000 houses yearly but now the Minister of Finance had let the cat out of the bag and the situation was that the Government would build 4000 houses and leave private enterprise to build the remainder. It could now be realised that it was no use relying on the Government to build houses. Mr. C. F. Skinner, denying that wage earners had not been put in a positiou to own their own hoines said thaL since the Goverment caiue into force 19,202 workers had received lbans amounting to £19,500,000 to enable tliem to build or buy their own freehold liomes and with the 21,000 State rental liouses that had been built the Government had housed 40,000 famiHesL Mr. Sempie said applications had been lodged for building permils to the vaiue of £40,000,000, all for buildings which the people needcd, yet there waa only £19,000,000 worth of materials available. In these circumstances controla must be retained otherwise the liousing scheme would collapse overniglit and men with long purses would obtain the timber while the people whose need was the greatest went witliout. On a population basis New Zealand had built more liomes for its people in rocent years "than any other eountry and he believed .New Zealand would solve the housing problem before any other eountry.