STATE HOUSING IN N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25736, 23 February 1949, Page 6

STATE HOUSING IN N.Z.

AUSTRALIAN PAPER’S v CRITICISM

“PACE LIKELY TO BE SLOWER ”

Criticism of the financial side of the New Zealand Government’s housing policy appears in a recent issue of the Sydney financial journal, “Wild Cat.” “Many hundreds of well-to-do Maorilanders comfortably settled in State houses are,” it says, “content to stay there because it pays. At a rent only half of what they’d have to pay if they built themselves at to-day’s costs and paid to-day’s outsize prices for building, they’re saving 30s a week by letting the State be their landlord. It’s easy living for them —at the taxpayer’s expense. The State has skimmed the cream from the pool of tenants or potential home-owners, has helped a lot who don’t need helping because they’re well able to look after themselves but are losing sturdy independence, and is pushing ahead with another of its socialistic schemes to convert Maorilanders into State dependants. Traditional Maoriiander love of the freehold still lives on, but it’s far from universal now.

“How much does the taxpayer have to fork out to help house the other fellow who is to-day a subsidised State tenant? On the 27,000-odd houses let by the State since March, 1939, when the scheme kicked off, the taxpayer is hit for at least £40,500 a week, or well over £2.000,000 a year. Rents average 27s 6d a week. Expert valuers and builders estimate the average cost of a State house when tenants step in is not less than £2400. A fair rental, based on the formula under Fair Rents Act. is figured at £2 15s to £3 weekly; that is, double what the tenant pays. There are larger State houses, for families of five or more, where the figures are higher and the margin wider. “As more State houses are built at to-day’s inflated costs the load on the taxpayer’s shoulderakJs growing at a rate undreamed of when the scheme was in its infancy. Rents for new houses must be on a level with those occupied for years past or spoon-fed Maorilanders will grumble, so the loss a house looks like reaching £lOO a year before long for every roof, or £1,000,000 for every 10.000 houses. Maorilanders who have to foot the bill, although it’s hidden away in departmental files, are asking if there’s a breaking-point, and if so where? Shrewd observers don’t expect any change before the next election, at the end of 1949. but the reckoning-day won’t be easier for being delayed. “Observers from abroad have been nuzzled about New Zealand Statehouse finance and the standard of homes, which they admit is high. Taxes are the answer.

“Thousands are in queues waiting for New Zealand Labour planners and financial wizards to build faster, but, with the red light showing, the pace is more likely to be slower. State housing has slipped a good deal since 1940, when State-built homes outnumbered private; to-day private houses going up are two-to-one against State, and the swing will go further.”