INCREASES HELD REASONABLE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26078, 3 April 1950, Page 8

INCREASES HELD REASONABLE

COMMENT BY MR G. W. DELL

The increases in rent, to those who could afford them, were nothing out of the ordinary and seemed quite reasonable, said Mr G. W. Dell (chairman of the Christchurch Housing Allocation Committee) commenting on the announcement on State house tenancies by the Minister in charge of the State Advances Corporation (Mr J. R. Marshall). The tenants should pay something near a fair rental, and the provision that no family should be required to pay in rent more than onefifth of the family income covered the low-income group, Mr Dell said.

The decision to fix an income limit was in line with the policy adopted by the committee ever since it had started its work, said Mr Dell. The committee had been accepting about £5OO as the income limit, and had considered that persons earning more than that should have to wait. The commit* tee had even gone further, in passing over persons with a high family income. Many applicants who did not earn more than £lO a week had adult families-whose earnings might bring the family income up to as much as £25 a week. The committee was of the opinion that adult persons who relied on their parents to house them should provide something towards the cost of the house.