300 State Houses Lost

Northern Advocate, 17 August 1949, Page 4

300 State Houses Lost

AUCKLAND, Wed. (Sp.) field of state housing construction alone, sufficient housing to accommodate 1200 people was lost in Auckland as a result of the carpenters’ dispute, according to figures supplied by the department. It will not be possible to recover the lost houses, as this could only be done at the expense of private building. Actual working time lost, combined with the delay in reorganising jobs, was taken into consideration when the loss was estimated, giving a figure of 300 houses which were not built. A far-reaching effect of the dispute was the breaking up of old-established gangs of men used to each other’s methods and ability. While the majority of builders engaged in state house work have full teams on their contracts now, individual builders are still not operating at full pressure owing to lack of staff. Allowing for a break of two years during the war, 9300 houses have been built in the Auckland area since building commenced in 1937. This gives a production rate of almost 1000 houses a year. There are under construction 330 in Mt Roskill, 290 in Tamaki, 80 on the North Shore, 50 in Mt Albert and 130 in small scattered groups.