BRITISH HOUSING PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27018, 18 April 1953, Page 6

BRITISH HOUSING PROBLEMS

Ways Of Encouraging Builders OUTLINE BY SIR PERCY MILLS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 17. The gap between the cost of a house and the amount that a financial institution could lend was a problem in Britain as well as in New Zealand, said Sir Percy Mills in Wellington today. Sir Percy Mills, a noted British industrialist, was appointed by the British Government at the end of 1951 to advise on housing problems. He said today that it was a little premature to say how the problem of the gap in housing finance could be remedied, but he bad been discussing it with other people during his present trip. “If we could solve that problem, I think we would find that people’s desire to own their homes would be as great as ever,” he said. Told about New Zealand’s cement difficulties, he said Britain was a big exporter of cement. It exported about 2,000,000 tons a year, mostly to the Dominions. His only problem with cement had been a matter of distribution.

On the other hand, timber had to be imported by Britain, said Sir Percy Mills. As some of it cost dollars, Britain went to great lengths to conserve it. Wooden floors were not allowed for the ground floors of buildings. All kinds of novel methods were used to build houses and save timber. Big savings had been achieved. Britain had also experimented in cutting down the amount of cement in concrete by using breeze blocks (cement and coke) and foam concrete (with basic slag), he said. “New traditional” houses were a style developed to save labour. About 40,000 to 50,000 were built each year. Some of the methods involved the formation of walls op. the site in steel shutters, and using large prepared concrete blocks and pre-stressed cast concrete slabs.

Britain’s house-building target was 1500 homes a day. Sir Percy Mills said. It was being achieved by encouraging local authorities to build more houses. During the Second World War, they had been the only authorities to build houses, and they had to be-encouraged until the stream of private building got under way.

Other ways of encouraging building were the freeing of the private builder, stage by stage, to build more houses for owner-occupation; the organisation of material supplies so the builder could plan his works; the study and encouragement of designs that saved time and materials; and the study of the standardisation of materials to cut time and cost.

Costs could be lowered more effectively by encouraging competition than in any other way, said Sir Percy Mills. Builders were resourceful people. If put to competition, they would find ways to keep their costs down.