NEW STATE HOUSES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19339, 1 June 1937, Page 5

NEW STATE HOUSES

AVERAGE RENTS MR. LEE ON COMMENT (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The recent announcement of the average rents to bo charged for the new State houses throughout the Dominion naturally has produced a considerable amount of discussion, many interesting points being raised in correspondence to the newspapers. Several of the most, outstanding features were discussed by Mr. J. A. Lee, Under-Secretary of the Housing Branch, in an interview .with the Herald’s representative. “A stream of fresh applications for houses lias poured into the Ministry of Housing in Wellington since the rentals were announced,” remarked Mr. Lee. ‘‘The reason for that stream is that, tar from higher class accommodation being available at our figure, it is impossible to get the same amount of space at anything approaching the same money, to say nothing of the better type of house we are offering to the workers of the country.” ‘‘One important feature which has been lost sight of,” suggested Mr. Lee, “is that the rents announced are average figures, which pre-supposes that where the site value is exceptional, an additional 2s 6d or even 5s may be added. Of course, each 2s 6d or 5s added will enable 2s 6d or Os to be deducted from the rental of a house in a less favoured locality. Houses will be available for ail standards of income.” Weekly Kent Ideal

The criticism that the Government had not endeavoured to live up to the ideal of a day’s pay as tfie weekly rental was mentioned, and Mr. Lee said this was a very good point for discussion. It would he "easy to decently house the community lor one-fifth of the, income if that proportion of incomes could be collected from everybody, ho remarked. “There are great difficulties about establishing a differential rental,” lie continued. “For instance, a man with a family of seven could get a house for one-fifth of the family income when it reached the earning point which recouped the fund to the extent of onefifth of the incomes coming into thb house. A scheme of this kind could not operate without criticism from those paying the differential rents until the State has a larger proportion of houses.”

"The commonsense way to make up a differential rent,” concluded Mr. Lee, “is through the establishment of a motherhood endowment scheme.” It was ascertained that the system oi' finally selecting candidates for the State houses is not yet determined, though it is possible that to reduce the numbers of well qualified applicants to the number of bouses available will necessitate a final recourse to a ballot.