MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

Evening Star, Issue 21824, 13 September 1934, Page 8

MUNICIPAL HOUSING.

Following on the inauguration of the Bristol scheme for property improvement in Dunedin, and muclk more ambitious, is the Mayor’s proposal for a municipal housing scheme. His Worship has ascertained that theic aie about 200 building sections available on sites now standing idle owned by the City Corpoi'ation, and the value he puts ou these is between £40,000 and £50,000. At this early stage of the proposal no details have been • given as to their whereabouts or suitability, and some councillors appeared doubtful on the point, but the Finance Committee, which is being asked by the council to report on the scheme, will doubtless furnish particulars in due time. Mr Cox’s estimate is that “good” houses of the type required could be erected for about £560 each, and, with the price of the site added, the purchaser’s liability would be £750, payable in weekly instalments over a number of years, each instalment being ■a smaller sum than is payable now as rent for a similar type of house. The required by the City Corporation for building would be £IOO,OOO, which money it is hoped to raise (presumably locally) at 3f per cent., and reliance is placed on this expenditure being subsidised by the Unemployment Board to the extent of £12,000.

The proposal undoubtedly has points of some attractiveness. There would be a welcome stimulation to the building trade and the corporation itself would stand to benefit by access of revenue, some of it new, derived from rates and services. The much-criticised building scheme in Britain is steadily gaining recognition as having been on the whole good policy, both from the amount of work created and the considerable easing of an acute housing problem in many parts. But in that case there was undoubtedly an acute demand, and in Dunedin’s case it is by no means likely that, relatively speaking, a corresponding demand exists. Mr Cox states that, despite the fact that a, number of houses in Dunedin have remained uncondemned because of the general trade depression, there is already a considerable shortage of good houses of the type proposed, and if the city did its duty in the matter of slum clearance that shortage would be accentuated. The council has already investigated an improvement of this nature in Glasgow street, South Dunedin, but there appears to be a hesitancy on the part of some councillors to embark on a municipal housing scheme. What seems attractive on paper may not work out well in practice. There is the class of tenant or purchaser to be considered—whether he would maintain the property in decent order and be regular and conscientious about his payments. That at least has been the experience of the Christchurch City Corporation. If, however, the Finance Committee feels justified in recommending the city to enter afresh the field of municipal housing, it might be wiser to follow Cr Shacklock’s suggestion and experiment first with Glasgow street, the sum involved being estimated at half what the Mayor’s scheme would involve. Presumably such loan would have to be sanctioned by ratepayers at a special poll.