State Housing Plans For Present Year

Chronicle (Levin), 8 February 1949, Page 5

State Housing Plans For Present Year

CHTUKTCiirRCH, Feb. 7. If the Govei'uuient ks hopes are rea lised, 14,000 new houses will be buiit in the Dominion this year. Of this number 4000 will be State rental houses while a great number of the remainder will be financed by the State Advances Corporation. This was disclosed by the Minister ot Housing Construction (Air. Semple) today, when referring to the progress being made by the Department. The . •>(), 000th State house to I >e built since j the Government 's housing programme started in 19.17, would. be completed this inonth, Air. Semple added. This total would have been doubled but for the war, for six years building had been restrieted and for a period after the war there were arute shoj'tages of building materials. This diiticulty was passing now and the Government was getting into it* stride again. He did not think that the prefabricated houses being erected in Welling-i ton on trial, would be suitabJe for New Zealand conditions. Two of Swedish design aifd two aluininium houses manufactured by an English firm, would be readv for inspection, soon. They wilJ not be as good as State rental houses and not. fhpnnpr

The New Zealand State houses were ahead of anv Government houses he had seen in Australia, said Air. Sempiq. in Vietoria a huge fa^tory built for war purposes, had been taken over for the construction of prefabricated concrete houses. There was no variation in design and when erected in blocks, ail painted the same colour, they resembJed old council houses seen in great numbers, row upon row, in English eities.