HOUSING SHORTAGE

Grey River Argus, 21 June 1944, Page 3

HOUSING SHORTAGE

Conference Arranged ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE P.A. WELLINGTON, June 20. The Associated. Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, in a letter, inviting various national organisations to send representatives to a conference being arranged by the Associated Chambers to consider the housing situation, states: “There is common agreement throughout New Zealand that one of the imperative duties the country owes its fighting men is to be able to welcome them back with adequate facilities foi’ themseilves, their wives, and their children.”

Expressing concern at the serious and growing shortage of houses in i New Zealand, the letter says that while that shortage 'is nothing new to the Dominion, two developments which have made the position more acute are, first, the effort of wartime exigencies, and, secondly, the great problem of adequately housing New Zealand’s returning servicemen. Figures showed that State housing alone could not hope to make up the housing arrears, let alone the needs of servicemen It therefore devolved as a major responsibility on private enterprise to see that the alarming lack of houses was remedied quickly and lyA national conference of organisations concerned in the building industry could evolve a report which, it was hoped, would analyse the existing impediments to a vigorous house-building programme; .and would set out the means by which such a programme might be undertaken as a matter of urgency. The tentative agenda proposed includes the collation of local housing surveys to determine the national shortage; an analysis of costs in housing construction, such as wages, materials, and sales tax; the availability of materials, such as timber, tiles, plumbing and liftings; the availability of labour, skilled and unskilled, training measures, and labour content in prefabrication; the possibilities arid limits of prefabrication; State controls and prohibitions, legislation, local body by-laws, examination of impediments in the existing requirements or administration; the question of the place of the speculative builder in housing schemes; and State housing activities with an examination of the effectiveness of the question of tenancy as against ownership. “It is fully realised that an - effective solution of the present housing problem may not readily be found, particularly under war conditions,” says the Associated Chambers, “but the problem is so important and urgent as to call for an expert examination by all those in the building industry.” Organisations invited are the New Zealand Builders’ Federation, the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Municipal, Association, the Dominion Federated Sawmillers’ Association, the New Zealand Hardware Merchants’ Federation, the New Zealand Timber Merchants’ Federation, and the New Zealand Building Societies’ Association.