FINANCE FOR HOUSING

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27307, 25 March 1954, Page 6

FINANCE FOR HOUSING

STATE PROVISIONS CRITICISED

COMMENT BY MAYOR OF UPPER HUTT

(New Zealand Press Association) March 23.

Local authorities would be asked to relax building requirements, builders would be asked to keep down prices and prospective home-owners to keep down their requirements, but in no case would the Government propose that the code of the moneylender, State or private, be interfered with, said J;he Mayor (Mr R. G. Slacke) at a meeting of the Upper Hutt Borough Council tonight. He suggested that the Government was not realistically attempting to bridge the gap between housing costs and the money available. Commenting on remarks made by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Sir Wil fc i liam Bodkin) and the Minister of Housing (Mr W. Sullivan) to the annual conference of the Municipal Association, Mr Stacke said the Government should not evade its own responsibilities in the matter of finance available to home-builders,. Mr Slacke said he knew of a man Who had saved £450. He bought a section for £4OO, and obtained a maximum loan of £2300. A builder asked £2500 for the erection of a house. With his own £5O, the man still had £l5O too little, and he could find no way of raising the mohey. As a builder himself, Mr Slacke said, he recalled that builders, during the depression, themselves provided second mortgages, and eventually lost the money. Older builders Who recalled this experience would not be likely to provide finance again.