Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1943. AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1943. AN UNSOLVED PROBLEM.

JN Parliament the other day, some one observed sapicntly that the only way to solve the housing problem in this country is to build more houses. While it is .perfectly true as far as it goes, this statement does not go far enough. It takes no account, for instance, of the factor of cost. In order that the housing needs of the people of the Dominion may be met it is necessary not only that houses should be provided in greatly increased numbers, but that they should be lowered in. cost. Even before the war, the cost of houses in general was too high in relation to average earnings.

It is of course obvious that in existing war conditions comparatively little can be done to modify or amend the existing state of affairs where housing is concerned. Labour and materials arc both in hopelessly short supply, and in spite of attempted measures of stabilisation, costs continue to move upward. . The one redeeming feature of the situation is that it lends itself well Io a study of methods by which, when war demands ease off and ultimately cease, houses may be produced not only in greater numbers, but more economically.

That this opportunity of taking thought for the iuture is not being neglected was indicated by the Minister of Housing Construction," Mr Semple, when the housing construction vote was under discussion in the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon. Recognising that “the most urgent problems were to increase the supply of houses and to keep' downl their cost, because it was useless making houses if the working l man could not afford to pay the rents,” the Minister said, amongst other things, that information was being sought from the United States on the latest methods of prefabrication. Experimental prefabricated houses in. this country have cost as much as the ordinary Slate house, but that. Mr Semple observed, would not be the case with mass production. The Minister mentioned an estimate by a New Zealander who had made an investigation in the United States that, by the use of plastics and American prefabrication methods, the cost of a given house in this country could be reduced from £l3OO to £650.

There does not seem to be any doubt that by a-n adequate survey and selection of methods and materials, the cost of houses could be reduced very considerably. It seems likely, too, that savings could be made to apply not less definitely to maintenance costs than to costs of construction.

Perhaps the greatest danger by which this country is faced where housing is concerned is that of relying too exclusively on State action. An indefinite extension of State tenancy has its obviously undesirable and limiting features and" it has to be considered that the present policy is not only tending to exclude private commercial enterprise from the field of housing construction, but is withholding opportunities that might be given to self-reliant and enterprising people of doing a good deal on their own account towards acquiring their own homes.

It is true that assistance is available by way of loans to people desirous of acquiring or building their own. homes, but there are other forms of assistance which deserve to be considered. In Sweden, for example, there are municipal housing schemes under which prospective home-owners are provided by the controlling municipality with the housing materials they need, largely in the shape of prefabricated parts, and build their own homes, though some of the work, such as plumbing and the fitting of electric light, is carried out by skilled tradesmen. Many excellent houses have been erected in these conditions in Stockholm garden suburbs. The cost of the materials supplied becomes-'a loan to be repaid over a period of 30 years.

Account might well be taken of the development of self-help and co-operation, as well as of State action and private commercial action, in attacking the housing problem in New Zealand.