Surplus house use

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 9

Surplus house use

Surplus Government houses should be rented to low income earners, not sold, according to the Christchurch Methodist Mission. The mission’s superintendent, the Rev. John Roberts, said yesterday that the shortage of reasonably priced rental accommodation was well-known as was the strain rent payments made on the budgets of those on low incomes. The problems had been

compounded in Christchurch and elsewhere by the sale of Housing Corporation units and by recent cuts in the corporation’s building programme, he said. Referring to a recent Cabinet directive to Government Departments to sell their surplus properties, Mr Roberts said that the Government could use the extra stock to provide cheap rental housing to those in need.

Mr Roberts was also concerned that the sale of the surplus houses, most of which were tenanted, would cause social problems. Existing tenants should be given the first right of purchase with assistance provided by the corporation, and if this was not possible, they should be given three months notice to quit as alternative accommodation would be hard to find.