NEW SOUTH WALES HOUSING SCHEMES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 75, 21 December 1937, Page 4

NEW SOUTH WALES HOUSING SCHEMES

With our own State Housing Scheme just now bulking large in the eyes of the public, it may be of interest to note tlie methods that have been and are being adopted by the New South .Wales Government for prOviding homes for the people. Among the earlier plans was the institution by the Lang Government of an Advanees for Homes Department, under which a fair amount of building had been carried out. This, however, came to an untimely end in 1931, when there was a temporary eollapse of the State Savings B.ank. Under the sueeeeding Government an active housing policy has been pursued. Among the first plans promulgated was the Homes for».Unemployed Trust, under which some thousands of attractive little homes have been provided in open-space suburbs upon conditions which allowed of intermittent workers buying outright by payments of 6/- a week extending over a term of years. Then followed a Rural Bank, through which advanees totalling some £3-milJion had enabled the erection of some 4000 homes, costing up to £1200 each, for persons who were in a position to put down 25 per cent. of the requisite amount. Now, as an adjunct to the Home for Unemployed Trust, it is proposed to develop a rural homes scheme to provide houses of a similar type with some acres of land in country districts for families living under conditions of some distress. Under the new Housing Bill that is just now under diseussion by the State Legislature ways and means are to be devised for starting a Workers' Home Scheme which will ensure for families of small income — £4 or £5 a week — modest but attractive homes for a total weekly payment of 20/-. The really outstanding feature of the Stevens Government 's housing policy is the use that has been and is still to be> made of building society organisation. No less than 139 such j societies have already been registered in all parts of the State. ) For tliem and otliers yet to be established lending funds totalling some £10-million are to be made available under Government guarantee. Already the societies have taken up somewhere about half this amount and have distributed over £l^-million by way of building loans among their members. But this is only the beginning of things, for many more societies are now in course of promotion and formation and it is expeeted that the total membership will ere very long reach the 20,000 mark, while in the neXt few years it may very well be doubled. This building society stfheme permits of advanees up to 90 per cent. of the cost of the home with a limit of £900, the Government guarantee being discharged in respect of each security as soon as periodical payments have reduced the capital amount owing to two-thirds of the value, thus leaving the margin customary in trustee securities. The great advantage of these schemes is, of course, that tlie occupants of the homes are gradually acquiring complete ownership of them. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stevens, in introducing his new Bill, was able to say that when he was in England last year he had devoted particular a^tention to investigating the building society movement there. Those responsible for its initiation and development had assured him that it had proved one of the biggest factors in promoting and stabilising industrial recovery in the Old Country, and he felt certain that it would assume similar importance in Australia and would come to stay.