STATE BUILDING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26077, 14 February 1946, Page 6

STATE BUILDING

A MONOPOLISTIC TENDENCY PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS SUFFER “We see thousands of State houses going up in one block, but I consider that at least one-third of the sections should be set aside for purchase by private individuals, especially returned servicemen,” said Sir James Fletcher in the course of an address to a representative meeting in the Council Chamber yesterday, which was called by the Mayor (Mr D. C. Cameron) to consider Dunedin’s housing problem. Sir James said that there were two sections of people—the man _ who wanted neither to buy nor build a house, and the man who wanted either to buy or build. Thirty or 40 years ago the investment of money in houses to rent was a good proposition, but for various reasons it was not profitable as an investment now. The State was obliged to build houses, but he considered a mistake was made in confining any particular settlement to State houses. It tended to segregate a sectiqn of the people, and this he considered “ absolutely wrong.” Sir James said that if certain sections of land were set aside for purchase there would be no need to depart from the housing standards laid down, but at present any professional man would have difficulty in qualifying for a State house. He added that there was an area in Dunedin bn which 1000 houses were being built, and if all the houses that could be accommodated on the' area were built for rental purposes, the result would be an unbalanced suburb. Mr L. J. Ireland, chairman of the Works Committee of the City Council, said that the City Council was working on a scheme for land develop? ment. Everyone realised that the cost of housing had to be brought down, and the council believed that by making land available for purchase it could assist in this direction.