“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1936. HOUSING POLICY.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 301, 4 December 1936, Page 4

“TARANAKI CENTRAL PRESS.” FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1936. HOUSING POLICY.

In a statement made during the week-end, Mr J. .A. Lee, who is the political head of the new Ministry of Housing, indicates that he proposes to make use of the po vers conferred by the Coalition Government’s Housing Surveys A"t. Ihe announcement will be. welcomed; it could only be wished that Mr. Lee would restrain his enthusiasm for building houses until such time as the results of these surveys, and of the census enquiries about housing, become available in an intelligible .form, l or it must be emphasised that neither Mr. Lee nor any of his officials can claim an accurate knowl. edge of the existing supply of houses and the demand for them, of the extent of overcrowding and the amount of defective housing.

The report prepared for the Coalition Government by an interdepartmental committee on housing showed clearly that on all these points even approximate estimates were out of the question; and it can be assumed that if Mr. Lee had come into possession of statistical data which would justify the activities of his department he would, have made them public. This lack of information is a serious weakness in the Government’s housing policy, since it means that the Department of Housing cannot possibly know how many houses are needed and how far the construction of houses by private firms is falling behind the demand. In the cifcumstances, it is possible that the long-term effect of the department s present and projected activities may be disastrous.

The experience of Great Britain and of other countries shows that in no other sphere of State activity is il easier to waste money and harder to produce permanent benefits. Much the same lesson can be learnt from the unhappy history of municipal housing schemes in New Zealand. Whether the projected housing surveys will enable the Government to relate its housing policy more closely to actual needs will depend partly on its willingness to be guided by facts and partly on the manner in which the surveys are conducted. It is perhaps unfortunate that Mr. Lee has been coni tent to make use of the Housing Surveys Act, a measure which bears all the marks of hasty thinking and drafting. Its most important weakness is that it makes individual local authorities responsible for conducting surveys in th dr district; co-operation among authorities is provided for but is not compulsory. Since local authorities in New Zealand arc constitutionally averse to joint action, the probable result will be. the preparation of dozens of surveys where half-a-dozen would suffice and an unnecessary increase in the work of correlating results.

A simpler and better procedure would be to divide the country into regions and compel the local authorities in each region to set up a joint committee to concha t the housing survey. A second weakness in the measure is that it permits parts of any local district lo be exempted from the survey. Mr. Lee, regrettably but not unnaturally, thinks this provision is a good one and secs no need for surveys except in overcrowded areas. By this means he will get the data he wants and expects. But he must surely realise that, as a basis for policy, such surveys will have only a limited usefulness. For example, overcrowding may be due to a shortage of houses, to poverty, to inadequate transport facilities, or to mere inertia. It is essential that, the Department of Housing should knew something about the relative importance of these factors and it is certain that the limited surveys contemplated by Mr. Lee will tell it very little.