Public Service rents agreed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33034, 29 September 1972, Page 2

Public Service rents agreed

fN.Z. Press Association/

WELLINGTON, Sept. 28. Agreement had been reached on a revised formula for calculating and adjusting rents for public servants in departmental houses, said the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on the State Services (Mr Thomson) today.

The agreement is for an adjustment in November, an anjustment on April 1 (based on changes in the capital and unimproved values for the 1972 calendar year) and then

automatic adjustments on April 1 each year. Negotiations had taken place between the State Services Co-ordinating Committee and the Combined State Service Organisations during the year, Mr Thomson said. Under the present agreement, reached in 1966, departmental house rents were based on 4.5 per cent of capital value in urban areas, and on 3 per cent of capital value in rural areas. This was subject to a maximum capital value of $9OOO and a maximum unimproved value of $2OOO.

The new agreement provided for a rent adjustment in November based on a

maximum capital value of $12,000 and a maximum unimproved value of $3OOO, Mr Thomson said. Rents on urban area houses would continue to be assessed at 4.5 per cent, and on rural area houses at 3 per cent of the capital valuation at April 1 this year. At April 1 next year rents would be reassessed on capital valuations as at January 31, 1973.

Mr Thompson said the maximum capital and unimproved values of $12,000 and $3OO respectively would be adjusted having regard to movements in the ValuerGeneral’s section and house price indexes for the 1972

calendar year. This would create a new maximum capital value and maximum unimproved value above the old limits.

The formula was accepted by representatives of both the employee tenants and the State employing authorities, he said.

“I hope that the agreement, particularly in the provision of automatic adjustments of capital values and annual revision of rentals, will keep rents in line with movements in the official statistical data on which they are based, and so remove the need for substantial rent adjustments after longer periods,” said Mr Thomson.