The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1976. Pensioner housing and urban renewal

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1976. Pensioner housing and urban renewal

The Government announced in February that it was stopping local bodies from raising new loans and that it would reduce its own direct part in financing the construction of houses. At that time the Minister of Housing (Mr Gair) made it clear that the Government would not curb the activities of those local bodies which were building dwellings for elderly people True to Mr Gair's word, the Housing Corporation has been continuing to provide the subsidies and loans Several North Island projects have been supported, and the Christchurch City Council is about to get some of the money it needs to maintain its programme for building pensioner housing. This programme meets the obvious social reed of the elderly for good, suitable housing: and it benefits the rest of the community by releasing, for the use of others, the larger houses which are too big for the elderly people occupying them The building industry also benefits. People in the industry seem guardedly optimistic that it will weather the months ahead.’ but the money released by the Government for pensioner housing, even if it is but a trickle, will still be welcome.

The Government’s only fault in the field of pensioner housing is that it appears to have given no serious attention to the need to increase the amount which local bodies can spend on each unit and to the need to make it easier for old people with some, but not excessive, assets to buy or rent dwellings built by local authorities. But Mr Gair has already agreed to review the limit now imposed on the cost of each unit and he has promised, specifically, to consider the possibility of treating land and construction costs separately when the size of the Housing Corporation's subsidies and loans is being determined This would give such local bodies as the Christchurch City Council a welcome flexibility in planning housing for pensioners.

The council has not received the same sympathetic support from the Government for its schemes for urban renewal. The council failed when it made a bid in the middle of March for extra money on loan from the Housing Corporation, beyond the $2 million already allocated for 1976-77, which would have allowed the council to make a start on its Harman Street scheme. Urban renewal schemes are. socially, only a little less valuable than pensioner housing. The need for the Government to curb its spending at the present time must be respected, but urban renewal schemes should deserve serious consideration. They may appear, at first sight, to be the kind of undertaking that may be deferred until better times, and a delay may seem to permit no more than a marginal deterioration in -cities and towns In fact, the renovation of old areas, usually in the centre of urban areas, may. be the most economical way of housing people. It is the kind of development that puts least strain on local authorities, which are constantly pressed to supply services to new suburbs. Even allowing for the Government’s need to restrain expenditure, the lack of attention to urban renewal schemes—usually for a high density of accommodation, may be a false economy.