Falklanders’ $250,000 houses

Press, 3 February 1984, Page 18

Falklanders’ $250,000 houses

By

HUGH O’SHAUGHNESSY

A row is growing in London because nearly half the $3O million allocated by the British Government for rehabilitation of the Falkland Islands, after the war with Argentina, has been spent on just 54 prefabricated houses. 1116 houses, which cost $35,000 to erect in Britain, are costing an average of $250,000 each to build in the Falklands. ■The project has been dogged from the beginning by bad luck, foul weather, and administrative blunders. A spokesman forithe Overseas Development Adminwatkn said: “We reject the charge that this has been a financial and

managerial debacle.” Shortly after the recapture of the islands in 1982 the O.D.A. sought tenders for the supply, erection, fitting, and furnishing of 27 dwellings for Port Stanley. They will replace houses wrecked during the war

The contract was won by the small British firm of James Brewster Associates at a price of $4 million — or $150,000 per house. Mr James Brewster, head of the fin®, says that the weatherproof shells of similar houses could have been

erected in Britain for $35,000. The difference in price, he adds, is accounted for by triple glazing, complete fittings, and the cost of erection and of supervising the project 8000 miles away. Subsequently, it was realised by the O.D.A. that nearly another $1 million would have to be spent on importing plant with which to erect the units. Disaster struck as the units were being shipped out. The containers in which the kits were packed in one vessel collapsed, the cargo

shifted in a storm, and the whole consignment had to be transferred to another vessel in Cadiz.

When the ships eventually reached Port Stanley they had to join a long queue of vessels waiting with military supplies and civilian goods. It took up to two months to unload them, notching up demurrage charges approaching $509,000. Forty-eight houses have now been completed. Controversy has already broken out over the low rents, $6O a week, which are being charged for some of the most luxuriously fitted accommodation in the Falklands. — Copyright, London Observer Service.