Inquiry Into Housing

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 44

Inquiry Into Housing

(N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 17. The Housing Division of the Ministry of Works had fulfilled its useful purpose and should be replaced by a Housing Commission empowered to develop land without any politicallyimposed restrictions, the Commission of Inquiry into housing heard today. The vice-president of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors (Mr H. V. Hunter), said the division had been adequate in the 1940 s but some tragic mistakes had been made in the last 10 years. Questioning this statement, the acting chairman (Mr A. M. Linton) said: “I will not criticise the Housing Division. I think they’ve done a good job.” Mr Hunter said this was largely so, but complained of the restrictive policies of politicians under which the division had to work. The institute submitted that the division had created substantial communities of people who had a similar social and economic background, in one area. It also seemed poor administration that the Housing Division, the State Advances Corporation, and the Crown Lands Office were involved in the selection of tenants, collection of rents, and the allocation of property. The division should be replaced by a Housing Commission empowered to develop

land without any politicallyimposed restrictions, it submitted. The institute felt that insufficient long-term planning is being done, because of the ineffectiveness of the Town and Country Planning Act as administered by the Ministry of Works, and the many planning and development acts being administered by different Government departments. The basic framework of urban development had to be laid down as part of district and regional schemes, it said. Under cross-examination, Mr Hunter said: “We have the situation that there are parts of Wellington and Auckland where it is impossible to get a bus into.” The Ministry of Works was the largest developer in the

country, but under the present system it could “build a beehive and the city engineer and town planner not know how they are going to service it” The institute recommended that in all new large housing developments, provision should be made to meet the needs of all income groups.

Greater involvement should be made of the skill and experience of the private sector in the fields of survey, engineering, and architecture, it said. Design contracts should be let to consultants in the field of public housing. The chairman, Mr R. B. Cook, Q.C., adjourned the hearing until August 19, when the commission will sit in Auckland.