The Times THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1937. Rents For State Houses

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 6

The Times THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1937. Rents For State Houses

Thuse who were expecting to lease State houses at rentals considerably lower than those ruling privately will be grievously disappointed at the scale announced by the acting-Prime Minister. The rents are little, if anything, lower than those obtaining for comparable private dwellings.

Perhaps people have been expecting too much of the Government scheme. They have heard a great deal about cheap finance and the economies from standardised planning and mass production in special factories. Therefore they might be excused for imagining they would soon be able to. occupy modern houses with all amenities at greatly reduced rentals.

In his higher liights on housing the people, Mr. J. A. Lee may have encouraged such ideas, but he also mentioned recently that the cost of a house (presumably not including land) would range from £BSO to £I3OO, and even higher. That should have offered a guide on rents, and so also should Mr. Lee’s statement that “the weekly rent would represent about one day’s wages for a good carpenter, or perhaps a little more.”

Certainly a rent of 25s net for a four-roomed house is beyond the means of a labourer receiving the basic wage of £3 16s, less 2s 5d unemployment tax. He would be pledging a third of his earnings for rent alone. Then he would have to consider the residential locality in relation to his place of work and his wife’s shopping, and add a weekly sum for transport costs.

It would seem, therefore, that so far the Government has not solved the problem of housing the masses at rents they can afford to pay. Actually the State is doing no better than the private enterprise it has largely shouldered out of the field. It has assumed a huge liability without any apparent gain to the public, a liability which the taxpayer may in the end have to liquidate.