HOW MUCH WILL HOMES COST?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 41, 18 February 1943, Page 4

HOW MUCH WILL HOMES COST?

THE Dominion's housing shortage is already so acute as to make it certain that when servicemen return in large numbers a major problem will face the Government and the building industry. There is therefore an imperative duty cast upon all concerned to complete, in advance, the organisation of the industry for the purpose of fitting it to cope as efficiently as possible with the demands which will be made upon it. In any such plans there are the interests of the three parties to be considered—those of the prospective house-owner or tenant and those of the employers and the workers. Of these the first, so often subordinated, is the most important. The building industiy does not exist primarily to provide high profits and jobs at high wages; it exists to serve the public. It would be quite possible for an arrangement to be made between building employers and workers which, even though app; oved by the Government, would be unsatisfactory from the point of \ v, of "the public interest. Such an arrangement, however, would i.c Live lcng. for if it raised costs so high as to reduce demand, the uk.. . , itself would suffer. But there might be another kind of ariui C v.nent an arrangement between the Government and the workers in the industry, under which the workers were assured of steady employment at high wages, and the Government became the principal, and the dominant, provider of funds for building construction. Bearing these possibilities, and especially the second, m mind, the public should serious attention to the assertions now being made by building trade employers as to the effect of the proposal to apply to ordinary construction the special conditions imposed foi defence construction. The publicity already given this proposal has moie than one curious feature. . The building trades unions are apparently consenting eagerly to the permanent over-riding of an Arbitration Court award by a Government order, although in the depression all unions denounced the then Government for an action exactly the same in principle. More curious still, some employers, in objecting to the proposal have placed themselves in the position of standing staunchly for the 40-hour week, when.the workers are prepared to work 48 hours. Obviously a lot more light needs to be shed on the proposal. In the threatened emergency last year, when a very large defence construction programme was undertaken, the first consideration • was speed: cost was secondary. The cost, moreover, was to be borne by the community as a whole. In private construction, especially of homes, the consideration of cost is primary, for the cost has to be boine by the individual. According to the building trade employers, building costs, already, far too high, will inevitably be substantially increased if the Government's present proposals are allowed to operate. . It is for the Government to disprove this assertion, if it can. If it fails to disprove it, but brings the scheme into operation, it will invite the charge that its unconcern about costs is due to its intention that most of the building construction in future shall be done for the State. If competitive tenders for a private house are too high, the house will not be built. If the cost of a house built speculatively for sale or letting is too high, then it will not be sold, and if, through a tenant's sheer necessity- it is let, tlie owner will be likely to find it difficult to collect the rent. Such experiences discourage private building. But if a Government builds a large number of houses, and fixes the rents arbitrarily and too low, and eventually finds itself with a deficit in its Housing Department's account, it can, and it will, seek a subsidy from the Consolidated Fund. Besides, the Government which built the houses may not be in office when the day of reckoning comes. These considerations affect the public in many ways, but chiefly because the private citizen, or the private firm, cannot compete with the Government in spending money. Among the thousands of New Zealanders, both at home and abroad, who will want homes after the war, there are some who will be content to rent State houses; there are others who will want their own. The chances of the latter, the aspiring homeowners, will be determined very largely by the cost of building. If the cost of building is determined by the State, and if the State is paying prices for labour and materials such as the private person cannot hope to pay without loading himself with financial commitments for the rest of his life, then few houses will be built for private ownership. Through compulsion of circumstances, the majority of home-seekers will find shelter under a State-owned roof. Is this a prospect that will be welcomed by the majority? It is for those who will be directly affected, and particularly for the young men in the services, or their relatives who can speak on their behalf, and the ex-servicemen's organisations, to voice. their opinions now, and at the outset to insist that the radical change apparently contemplated shall not be made until it has been fully explained and examined in Parliament —and not in secret session.