Workers' Dwellings.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 11, 1 July 1919, Page 553

Workers' Dwellings.

Erection of 200 Authorised. .(From the “Dominion”). Mr. F. W. Rowley (Superintendent of Workers’ Dwellings) recently announced tha authority had just been received for the erection of a first instalment of 200 workers’ dwellings, and also for the receipt of application from workers earning salaries up to £225 per annum. Formerly, no application'from persons earning more than £175 per annum could be entertained, so that the fixing of the new limit at £225 represents an important widening of the Department’s activities.

"The Department," said Mr. Rowley, "is instructing, its agents throughout the Dominion at once to allow a fortnight for the submission of further applications for these dwellings. It has not 200 applications in hand at present, possibly because the former conditions of eligibility excluded the majority of the workers in this country, or because the people. knew that the Department was unable to proceed with the construction of many homes on

account of the high cost of material. The Department's agents will report upon the applicants who come forward, and the Workers' Dwellings Board in Wellington will then deal with each application, approving or rejecting it. . In each case close inquiry will be made to ensure that the applicant ; s of good character, and likely to carry out his financial and other obligations to the board. Having so dealt with the applications, the board will allocate the 200 dwellings to the different towns according to the demand. Precedence among the approved applicants will be determined by the order in which the applications have been received. .

"It is probable that only two or three types of dwellings will be erected, since the Department is anxious to introduce a measure of standardisation, and so economise on the cost of erection. As I have stated before, the Department hopes to be able to build in concrete rather than in wood, because concrete, though dearer at first, is in the long run cheaper than wood. We are at present, by the way, investigating quite a large number of proposed systems of construction.

"Having called for and received tenders for the building of 200 houses, the Department will ascertain whether the prices are reasonable, and whether the applicants will be able to make the payments involved. It may be explained that they weekly instalments payable on concrete houses are based upon repayment of the principal in 36} years. They amount to 6 per cent., with rates, insurance, and maintenance, bringing them up to seven per cent. in all. Thus, on a concrete house costing £750, the applicant would have to pay £1 per week. The period of repayment of principal on wooden dwellings is only 25-1- years; so the rate is necessarily higher than that for repayment upon concrete dwellings. It amounts to 7 per cent., plus rates, insurance, and maintenance—in all, to about 8-J per cent. Therefore, on a wooden dwelling costing, say, £7OO, the weekly payment would be 23s per week.

. "It remains to be seen whether, when the cost of building is so! high, the Department can obtain tenders sufficiently low to enable it to erect houses at a figure within the statutory limit of £750 for house and section, and at a figure the applicants will be able to pay. To avoid monotony in the appearance of its houses, the Department proposes to distribute them about in twos and threes, and vary their front appearance slightly.