CHEAPER HOMES FOR PEOPLE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21992, 16 January 1937, Page 7

CHEAPER HOMES FOR PEOPLE

MR SAVAGE'S CLAIM OFERATION OF GOVERNMENT HOUSING SCHEME (FB7RS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, January 15. The contention that the Govern : menfs housing scheme had resulted in cheaper homes for the people was made by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hen. M. J. Savage) in a statement. He quoted instances in which , the

Ministry for Housing had been successful in obtaining sites for houses at a cheaper price than hitherto. Mr Savage said that if the new Ministry for Housing nad shown one thing more than another it was the ability to effect substantial savings in the cost of land that was being acquired for housing. A moments thought would show why that was so. In the days when the housing policy ' of the Government was confined 10 advancing money to individual homebuilders to buy land, a selling agency had. to load to the cost of each section the cost of selling, and as there might be between 20 and 50 clients before a *ale was made, this resulted m a tremendous inflation of costs. Investigations were being made in ■ nearly all the secondary centres of 1 New' Zealand for securing land for ; housing, and aeain it would only De true to say that the offers of suitable • land were in excess of the needs and • the Drice at which the various sections 2 of land were being offered was so

reasonable that the department, could ignore a person who was trying to drive a harsh bargain. . If land could be acquired m larger cities for anything between £lo(rand £l5O a section cheaper than had been paid in Ahe years between 1922 and 1929 it could be seen that the Ministry .for Housing had that margin with which to offset the effects of the 40-. hour week, but it would be found later that the capacity of the department to negotiate purchases of land at a low price was only equalled by its capacity to enter into reasonable agreements for the supply of other basic materials, about which a statement would be made later.