STATE HOUSES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22723, 26 October 1943, Page 3

STATE HOUSES

Letting Contracts Proposed New System Changes in the system of letting contracts for the building of State houses which are understood to be contemplated by the State Housing Construction Department are engaging the attention of builders and architects in the Auckland district. It has been stated that if the proposals are adopted they will eliminate the former system of open tendering for contracts and that houses will be built at a predetermined price based on the unit price system under a master schedule similar to that which has operated in the construction of defence works. The extensive experience of the department in designing and having constructed thousands of houses on plans of standard specifications and the experience also gained by officers of the Works Department and the builders themselves in constructing camps, stores and other large establishments on a unit price basis for materials and labour are said to be largely instrumental in furthering the adoption of this method for peace-time building. Change During the War In the early days of the war, stated an authority in the trade, defence cohstruction was carried out on a costplus system, under which the builder received a percentage over and above the costs of materials and labour employed. This was subsequently replaced by the unit price system under a master schedule and the major portion of defence works had been carried out under it. Prices were fixed for the different classes of work and the margin of profit which builders could make was increased or decreased according to the efficiency and organisation of the work. It was in effect, added the observer, a system of payment for results. With the rapid tapering off in defence construction it was anticipated that State house building would be resumed on a large scale again in the near future. It was only natural, remarked another representative, that the knowledge acquired in estimatingcosts of identical types of houses built in the past should be utilised, in the future construction of similar houses. The department could easily make out bills of quantities for those houses and determine the price. Effect of the Method If that method was adopted it would simply be a matter of offering a contract for the erection of so many houses to individual builders, the payments to them to be based on the unit price schedule. In that event there would be no necessity to call tenders and require many builders to go to the trouble and expense of working out prices. When asked what attitude the builders were taking in the matter, one representative said he believed that the majority were in favour of the proposals. He was unable to say whether a somewhat similar system of contracting might possibly be applied to private building but mentioned that discussions on the future activities of the trade were being conducted between the builders and architects’ orga nisa tio ns.