PENSIONERS’ COTTAGES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29262, 21 July 1960, Page 20

PENSIONERS’ COTTAGES

State Subsidy Policy

The City Council will ask the Minister of Health (Mr Mason) to confirm the principle of a Government subsidy of 50 per cent, of the cost of pensioners’ cottages, including the land. If necessary, it will send a deputation to the Government.

It took this action last evening, after being advised by the Director-General of Health (Dr. H. B. Turbott) that his department did not consider a recommendation to the Government for an increase in the subsidy was warranted.

“The Health Department’s conclusion appears to have been drawn from aii opinion of the State Advances Corporation covering the last 12 months, which seems to me to be begging the question,” said the City Treasurer (Mr L. A. G. Rich). “In 1955, the Government policy was to pay 50 per cent., with a ceiling price, for single units, of £7OO. It is suggested that what is required is confirmation of the 50 per cent, principle, and not the £7OO maximum. If the principle is confirmed, then it follows that the maximum is a secondary factor which must be from time to time.” Figures of cottages completed under the present basis of subsidy showed that half the unit cost ranged from £654 (a case where the land was a gift to the council) to £941 for the Wilsons road cottages now under construction.

Both Mr Mason and the Minister of Housing (Mr Fox) had spoken in glowing terms of the efforts of the council to provide homes of a good standard at a reasonable rent, so it was all the more disappointing to find a Government department not prepared to recommend the full 50 per cent, subsidy, said Cr. J. R. Smith. It was as much the duty of the Government to provide homes for the aged as it was the council’s and £7OO was not sufficient to meet half the cost.