"High living cost" stress worries health inspector

Taupo Times, Volume 23, Issue 48, 18 June 1974, Page 1

"High living cost" stress worries health inspector

A desperate shortage of low-cost housing in Taupo is focussing attention on the plight of lower income earners. The Taupo Borough Council has called for a special report on the matter. This follows a recent warning from the senior health and building inspector, Mr R. K. Ponga, that Taupo was likely to end up "a middle and upper income town." People on lower wages were finding it increasingly hard to afford houses, and the high demand for rental accommodation lessened their chances of finding a temporary flat, he said. Families were forced to leave Taupo, or both parents had to work to afford to stay in the town.

The accommodation problem is also troubling the Taupo Chamber of Commerce and members of the local Master Builders' Association. Not only is there a dire shortage of reasonably priced housing sections in Taupo, but it is becoming more difficult to buy or rent houses. "It has been the borough council's concern for a long time that there is no Government subsidised housing in Taupo, though there are plenty of people who would qualify for it," Mr Ponga said last week. "Taupo men on lower incomes have to send their wives out to work to give them what is, by New Zealand standards, an average style of living." Mr Ponga is worried about the resulting social and psychological stresses being placed on families in this situation. The cost of living in

Taupo was equivalent to that in Auckland and Wellington, he said, because of the high cost of land and houses, food and other consumer goods. "It is not a cheap place to live," he said. "We are not handy to market gardens for fresh fruit and vegetables, and transport costs put prices up. "And we are at the whim of retailers. Whenever it is holiday time, their prices skyrocket and Taupo people have to pay the same as tourists." Mr Ponga said people in the lower income bracket wanting to buy a house had to compete with speculators, who could afford to hold on to land, and with

buyers who were in a position to pay cash for properties — such as retired businessmen and

The price : tourism

or truancy?

farmers wanting a holiday house in Taupo. "This is what ordinary people who want to come to Taupo to live and work are up against. "Property prices here are what you would expect to pay in Auckland or Wellington, and yet this is a small, remote town." He said competition for land and housing all helped to "prop up the prices." On top of this was the. situation of greater demand than supply. A standard house in Taupo cost about $15,000 at the moment, said Mr Ponga. But by the end of the year it would be up to

$16,500. Sections were few, and expensive. "The borough -council has, for many years, been attempting to get Government to undertake a State housing programme here, but it has got nowhere," he said. "My concern is from the community health point of view. "The high cost of maintaining a family in Taupo is forcing wives out to work and this can start a chain reaction of family breakdown. "If this continues, it is going to mean that families wishing to live in Taupo are going to have to be in the middle and upper

income brackets." Mr Ponga claimed that some Taupo employers — including the borough council — were losing staff because award wages were not adequate to meet the cost of living in the town. The council will be studying a special report from Mr Ponga at the next meeting, on June 24. The Taupo Chamber of Commerce also regards the availability of land and housing as a vital need for Taupo, and the problem will be aired throroughly at ihe next meeting, tomorrow night. Local builders were to discuss the accommodation situation at a meeting last night.