THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE

Northern Advocate, 15 January 1948, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE

The subject of State housing occupied a prominent place in the last general election campaign in New Zealand, the National Party undertaking. if it were returned to powei, to give tenants of State houses the right to purchase their homes if they so desired, while, the Labour Party declared its intention to adhere to the present system whereby houses built by the State shall be rental houses only, tenants enjoying undisturbed occupation so long as they observe the conditions of their tenancies.

Apparently some Labour leaders have been wearing their considering caps lately, no doubt influenced by the close result of the New Zealand general election and the fact that State tenants in the Dominion form a not insignificant section of the electors.

However Ihat may be, the Labour Government of New South Wales, a Labour stronghold in Australia, has decided that tenants of houses built by the State Housing Department shall be given an opportunity to buy their houses, a decision which, if it had not been already discussed on both sides of the Tasman, must have given the New Zealand Labour Government a thought-provoking jolt.

It is noteworthy that the New South Wales Labour Government’s proposal is, to all intents and purposes, on all fours with that put forward by the* New Zealand National Party and condemned by the'’ New Zealand Labour Government.

The proposal of both the New South Wales Labour Government and the New Zealand National Party is that a tenant of a State house who wishes to do so may purchase tho house he occupies, and that portion of the rent already paid shall be credited to the deposit required when purchase on a table mortgage is entered into.

It will be interesting to hear why the Labour Government in New South Wales has departed from a policy which the New Zealand Labour Government has upheld, and to learn whether this decision is but

Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. Thursday'January 15, m ~ Purchase Of State Houses

the prelude to other departures from State ownership and control principles beloved of Socialists. So far as the freeholding of State houses is concerned, there are different schools of thought. There are those who hold that the State is under obligation to build houses for the people; there are others who contend that this is a matter which should lie left to private enterprise, both in respect of building and financing. There are those who hold that if the State provides housing accommodation it should retain possession of the homes, making them available to tenants on reasonable terms; others hold that the State, after providing homes, should encourage the occupiers to shoulder some of the financial risk by giving them the right of purchase by means of a reasonable deposit and gradual extinction of debt by a table mortgage, which would enable the State to recoup itself.

There are others who hold that, providing the Slate fixes a price which would be fair to the tenant and the taxpayers as a whole, there can be no objection to a tenant being given the opportunity to freehold his home if he wishes to. *

It is at this point that actuarial judgment is required, for State houses have apparently been financed by the Reserve Bank on the basis of interest at 1A per cent, cheap money which could not be obtained by any builder other than the State: to what extent this form of financing is safe, or desirable, taking a long view, is a matter about which there is difference of opinion, and one which should naturally be taken into consideration when the selling price of a State house was being fixed. However, the outstanding feature of the New South Wales Labour Government's decision to make State houses available for purchase by tenants consists in the political implications of a movement that is particularly interesting at a time when many fundamentals of the democratic way of life are in the melting pot.