HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 24297, 11 September 1942, Page 2

HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

MINISTER’S POST-WAR PLANS 40,000 IN THREE YEARS WELLINGTON, September 11. A State housing programme for the three immediate post-war years comprising 8,000 houses in the first year and 10,000 in each of the two subsequent years is under consideration bv the Minister of Housing (the Hon. H. T." Armstrong). In addition, the Minister assumes that in the same period private building will provide an additional 4.000 houses a vear, thus making a grand total in three 'years of 10,000 dwellings. The Minister also has in view a more liberal policy of State financing of private building of residences. “ I consider,” said the Minister, “ these figures to be well below what is desirable, but they represent tbo maximum _ possible, taking into account tbo practicable expansion of the building industry and the claims that will be made on it by other essential building works.” The Minister said that at present there wore 1,700 houses in various stages of construction, and that for the balance of the year, to March 31, the Housing Department could complete 2,000 houses. The easing of the defence construction programme should enable more permits to be issued for private dwellings, so that a further 1.000 houses should be completed by private enterprise by the end of March next. He realised, however, that such a programme would be dependent upon the availability of overseas material, as, for example, electric cable, glass, and water pipes. LAND PURCHASE PLANS. The. Minister’s survey looks well ahead, and he assumes that by 1957 New Zealand’s population will reach 1,850,000, requiring 500,000 houses. This would involve the building of 100,000 houses’in 15 years. It was also necessary to make allowance, said the Minister, for replacing unfit houses to the extent of 2,700 a year. Thus the total building programme would reach 9,400 houses a year. In order to be pre- - pared for the immediate post-war building programme tbo Housing Department should have on band enough land for two years—namely, 18,000 sections. The department s purchasing policy aimed at being two years ahead of building requirements in order to allow time for preparation and servicing of sections. The programme would involve the construction of about 50 miles of roadinn- annually, with all the attendant services. and this alone would require the employment of from 1,500 to 2,000 men annually, one-third of whom would have to be skilled. . . . Discussing the question of obtaining materials, the Minister pointed to the great ’ strides made by New Zealand manufacturers. In many cases, he said, the output of local manufacturers of such articles as baths, sanitary fittings, and electric ranges was in normal times so greatly in excess of the requirements of new buildings that the increase in production called for by the post-war programme would represent . a relatively small percentage, and could be achieved with existing plant and facilities. EMPLOYMENT ON LARGE SCALE. ** Building, among all the industries, continued the Minister, “is probably best adapted to absorb quickly a large number of employees, and the expanded housing programme will give secure employment on work which will become a national asset. A proportion of tbo returned men will be building tradesmen, but the majority will be unskilled. While a considerable amount of unskilled labour will be necessary, particularly in the initial stages, preparations must be made for ing of tradesmen of various classes. The Minister suggested that the success _of the carpenters’ training schools provided a pattern on which similar establishments should be set up in all the mam centres, and for trades other than carpentry. Delay on the job in the past,” he said, has been due more often to shortage of bricklayers, plumbers, painters, and electricians than of carpenters. To maintain maximum production and stability in the industry the : numerical strength of .-.the various trades should be well balanced, and also the ratio of artisans to unskilled men should be correct.” Tho Minister estimated that to give effect to the programmes be had outlined the number of men directly employed on building would require to be 8,000 to 9,000 for tho duration of the war; 21,000 in the first post-war year, and 24,000 in each of the two subsequent years. Of the total employees of tho building and allied industries, approximately 50 per cent, are employed on the site and 70 per cent, in the allied industries, including timber mills, brick and tile works, cement, concrete aggregates, ranges, baths, taps, and non-ferrous metal, electrical, wallboard, asbestos cement, paint, hardware, aud transport. Employment would thus be found for approximately 60,000 men. It was announced by the Minister that the Housing Department bad designed a house capable of being built for £7OO to £BOO. f To achieve this degree of economy careful consideration had been given to all aspects of technique and organisation. The house, although smaller, than standard type, would be convenient and fully equipped, containing no waste space. The advantages of pre-fabrication would be employed in a modified form suitable to the equipment and organisation of the industry. The Minister added that farm housing must also receive attention if farming was to absorb its quota of returned servicemen. “The Housing Department.” bo said, “is prepared to undertake the provision of the requisite housing, and is well able to do so. Housing for the farming population is often welt below a reasonable standard, and this is one of the reasons why farm labour is so difficult to retain on the land. It is not, however, only farm workers’ accommodation which is poor or completely lacking, but the small farmer himself often lives with his family in little more than a shack.”