NEW HOMES FOR OLD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 727, 30 December 1933, Page 5

NEW HOMES FOR OLD

("Post" Special Correspondent.)

BRITAIN BREAKS BUILDING RECORD WITH 169,100 GREAT -PRIVATE ENTESPRISE J

. London, Nov. 2b. During the year ended Septembef ! last more houses were built in Britain ' by privata enterprise than in any previous ' 12 months. This fact was revealed by the Minister of Health,- Sir Hilton Young, \ when he opened the 2'0, 000th muni- j icipal house built at Manchester. „ j He said that since subsidies were ; brought to an end last year, there j had been a continued fall in the cost ' of building. More important still was the effect on the number of houses built. ■"In the t-welve .months to Septemher 1932, private enterprise bfuilt 133,486 Houses, w-Hich had been about tha rate for some years/' he said. "In the following twelve months private enterprise built 169,100 houses, nearly 36,000 more. "That "breaks the record for private enterprise, -a strikingj and encourqging fact," he .sdded- In th'e ' same period 49,213 houses* had been completed 'by local authorities. . A promising sign of progress towards a solution of the country's housing problem was that vacant j houses of a smaller type were being » ■offered not "for sale" but "to let." J More letting accomm-odation .at lower rents was available for manual work- • ers. . . - . At the same time it was the duty j of local authorities to prevent a. | short-age of houses for wage earnejrs of their localities.