MR. SEMPLE DEFENDS HOUSE-BUILDING POLICY

Chronicle (Levin), 26 May 1947, Page 2

MR. SEMPLE DEFENDS HOUSE--BUILDING POLICY

CHEISTCHUECH, May 2a. In his -desk at Wellington were £15,000,000 worth of applications for building permits which he had rejected or postponed, said the Minister of Works (Hon. R. Semple) addressing the Avon electors at Linwood today. Some were from breweries for public houses, some were for luxury theatres, and some for 8 and 10-roomed houses. If building controls were lifted, he asked, how eonld the private builder, the ordinary man or the returned soldier compete in the supply and demand market with the rnillions the breweries had to spendf The war had left New Zealand short of all building materials. Enough timber had been used in the Paeilic to build 37,000 homes for the workers. It was a matter for pride that New Zealand had been able to break all recortts for house-building in the iast two years. He attaeked the claim he said had been made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland) that it would be in the interests of the eountry if all building restrictions were wiped out. Under the ' building cbntrol re^ulations. .the floor area of homes was" related,„-to a~man'si family responsibilities. The effeet of this was that a man without a family could not build a palatial residence ana that ensured that a inaii with children was given the opportunity to build sufficient living accommodation, Dismissing criticisni by Mr. W. Sullivan, M.P., during the by-election, Mr. Semple said it had never been the Government 's policy, to monopolise house-building nor was it true to say .that the import licensing system was hampering home building. " The diffi; culty was to obtain materials from overseas eountries which were loth to export materials needed for their own housing. In the United States it had been stated that 4,000,000 former servicemen were homeless. After building * controls \had been removed there prices had skyrocketed.'