STATE HOUSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 8

STATE HOUSES

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—it is surprising that no criticism of the Government housing proposals has appeared in your columns. Many years ago your paper used to denounce Mr. Seddon's State socialistic legislation, though you never had any alternative to it and destructive criticism is of no value. But this is attempting to implement a scheme that is unsound and foredoomed to failure. The Government has practically no reserves to build upon; it will be compelled to purchase land from private venders at high prices. The Government's competition as a land buyer will inflate land values and increase ground rents. The State cannot build houses cheaper than a private builder; the scheme is dependent on borrowed credit; the Reserve Bank is dependent on the overseas money interests, and cheap money means dear land. As to rents to pay the interest on the loans, the State must charge high ground rents; if low rents are charged then there will be a deficit on the scheme, and the general taxpayers will have to stand the racket. Another feature of the plan is this: the people who occupy the houses will be State-aided landlords, who can charge high rents to tenants. The cause of the house shortage is due to the high speculative price of land and to the excessive prices of building materials; the first is due to the fact that the rent of land is appropriated by land-owning speculators and building materials are taxed to the limit. The State should collect the ground rents and abolish other taxation. Then the problem of house accommodation will adjust itself.—l am' et°- F.W.BOURKE.