HOUSING SHORTAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 7

HOUSING SHORTAGE

THE REAL CAUSE

Mr. A. Parlane, a Labour candidate for. the Wellington City Council, said last night that there was a tendency on the part of the candidates on the so-called Citizens' ticket to lay the blame for the housing shortage on the restrictions placed on landlords by the Rent Restriction Act, and the recent legislation which was passed to prevent landlords from putting tenants out of their homes unless suitable houses were available for them. Nothing could be further from the truth. The restrictions were an effect of, and not the cause of, the scarcity of houses. The Rent Restriction Act was not passed by the Labour Government, but was iii force years before it it took office, and was necessary to prevent rapacious landlords from taking advantage of the shortage of houses and rackrenting the workers. The claim made that private enterprise, if left alone, would solve the housing problem would not bear analysis. What was being done by private enterprise in connection with housing in England had been cited. Private enterprise in England was not coping with the housing shortage any more than it was in New Zealand. The speaker quoted a British Official Wireless message to the effect that the London County Council had spent' £75,000,000 in slum clearance, and was asking for an additional £5,368,000 for capital expenditure on housing.