HOUSING SCHEME

Southland Times, Issue 23307, 17 September 1937, Page 8

HOUSING SCHEME

CRITICISM BY MR HAMILTON “SMALL BUILDERS PUSHED OUT OF BUSINESS” (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 16. The Government’s housing scheme has been responsible for stagnation in the building industry according to an argument put forward by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton), when moving a no-confi-dence amendment to the Address-in-Reply motion in the House of Representatives tonight. The Government, he said, should encourage private builders and building societies. Mr Hamilton said members of the Government talked about what the Government was doing in building houses but they neglected to say what other people were not doing. The Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong), had said houses would be built by the Government for £6OO to £7OO and that they would be let from 12/6 to 16/6 a week. Everyone knew that the houses had not been constructed for that figure and that the rentals would probably be double the sum mentioned by the Minister. During the past twelve months 3325 houses had been built, this number being just a little more than half the number built in the pre-slump years. The Government had put everyone else out of business. In 1926-27 a total of 7179 houses was built. Who was in office then, Mr Hamilton asked. It was the Reform Government. “I think the housing scheme will be in a bit of a mess for someone else to clean up,” concluded Mr Hamilton. “The first thing the Government did was to push up building costs by 25 per cent. It does not seem to realize the number of small builders it has pushed out of business.”