Housing commission at work soon

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33241, 2 June 1973, Page 13

Housing commission at work soon

YFrom Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON.

The membership of the National Housing Commission—-a research organisation designed to establish where houses are needed and what is required to produce them—will be known within a fortnight.

The Minister of Housing (Mr Fraser) told the quarterly meeting of the Timber Merchants’ Federation that

he was responsibl efor the appointment of four members to the commission.

These would include a person with experience as a builder, one with an architectural background, one who understood finance, and one with experience in community planning. “I believe there is a place on an organisation like this for a housewife,” Mr Fraser said. "I only have to explain that the numbers are limited. We are working on legislation passed last year. If it does not meet the problem, then we may have to change it — but the idea is to get the commission into orbit.”

The president of the federation (Mr G. R. Rear) was pleased about the news, although he said he was disappointed that timber merchants apparently did not rate a place on the commission.

“The National Housing Council of bygone years did a great deal of work of which the previous Government was not appreciative,” he said. “No-one seemed to listen. Yet three times the council produced figures on housing needs which corresponded exactly with those later produced by the Commission of Inquiry into Housing. “If the Government had listened to the council’s recommendations, there would have been no housing crisis,” he said.