BUILDING THE HOME UNDER THE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 29, 29 October 1934, Page 13

BUILDING THE HOME UNDER THE

No. 12 SUBSIDY SCHEME

Unemployment Board’s building subsidy scheme applies to the erection of new dwelling-houses, the board reserving the right to refuse the subsidy if the contract price exceeds £lOOO. It is paid in proportion to the covered floor space bn the basis of one shilling per square foot with a maximum subsidy of 8 per cent, of the contract price or £BO. “When the building subsidy scheme was initiated last year on a wider basis than when it was first introduced in 1932,” said the Minister of Employment, the Hon. A. Hamilton, in announcing the modified scheme in the House earlier this session, “the Unemployment Board recognised that it would not only result in the employment of large numbers of men but that it would have the distinct advantage of reabsorbing many of them in their original trade at ordinary wages and prevent many unemployed tradesmen from being forced to register for assistance. Many of the men so placed had not been*able to obtain work at their own callings because of the acute position into which the buildingindustry had fallen at the beginning of last year. “In its efforts to restart this industry the Unemployment Board aimed'at releasing capital, this being the point to which the blockage could be traced, and accordingly the rules of the sub- > -sidy scheme were extended to apply to all buildings, commercial or otherwise. Although the board has been criticised because the subsidy applied to buildings for wealthy concerns, it would have incurred more criticism had it frustrated its efforts to get capital moving by refusing to co-operate with any individuals or any firms that could prove they possessed the capital.” Mr. Hamilton said the board had received many requests for the revival of the scheme on the lines of that adopted last year, but most of those who had made representations on the subject had suggested limiting the assistance to new dwellings. It had been reliably calculated that nominally there was at the moment a shortage of 10,000 houses in the Dominion, and there was little room for doubt that many of the existing dwelling-houses—par-ticularly in the larger cities—should be replaced. “The long period of depressed economic conditions has had the effect of forcing more than one family to share a single house, and this has prevented to some extent the real shortage of houses from becoming very apparent,” said Mr. Hamilton. “With a tendency for economic conditions to, improve the board feels that the time is. opportune to offer special encouragement to the building' of houses, and confidently anticipates general approval of this proposal, as apart from the question of house shortage any stimulation in building activity reflects quickly and advantageously on the labour market.” The use of New Zealand materials, where practicable, is a condition of approval for the subsidy. On figures the Allied Building Industries took out at. the time the scheme was announced there was an actual shortage of houses in New Zealand of from 7000 to 8000, and it was estimated that it would take a building programme at the rate of 7000 cottages a year for the next three years to accommodate the normal increase of population, replacements and to overtake the shortage.