HOUSE BUILDING IS HOPELESS TASK SAY DUNEDIN BUILDERS

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 January 1948, Page 6

HOUSE BUILDING IS HOPELESS TASK SAY DUNEDIN BUILDERS

<PA.) Dunedin, Jan. 14. Several builders in Dunedin have decided that they will not attempt to erect any more houses. They say the situation is hopeless and that the task has become impossible. These builders in the last two years have accepted a fair amount of housing in and around the city and they have a considerable number of houses in the course of construction. None of them will accept orders for any more houses of the five-roomed type because they consider that such orders cannot be fulfilled under the existing conditions.

Government restrictions, lack of essential materials, and a shortage of skilled labour are the factors contributing to this reluctant decision. When city builders resumed their various activities this week after the Christmas holidays, a reporter discussed the situation with a number of them, seeking some indication of what the prospects were for new homes during the year. The builders were unanimous There were no prospects, they said. Two of them were emphatic. They were “sick and tired” of all the problems of building to-day and were considering selling out and establishing themselves in some other line of business. “If the public need were not so great. 99 out of 100 builders would throw in the whole thing,’’ one man declared. “Life is just one continual headache and no one, not even a builder, likes a headache.” The Government trade trainin? schemes for returned servicemen who wish to enter the building trade were roundly criticised by another builder. He alleged that the schemes were a waste of public money and of little benefit to the men themselves. He said that he had employed some of these “trade trained” men and had found them inadequate They did not possess the knowledge or exoerience of a first-year apprentice. This was most unfair to the men who had served their country overseas. Many of them were drifting back to their pre war jobs He maintained that the Government should place these men with builders and subsidise their wages. JThat was the only way to train them adequately and it would also help builders who were short of skilled labour. A fourth builder, referring to the shortage of labour in the trade, said that men generally were not doing the amount of work to-day that, they had performed previously. The quality of the work was affected by pool quality materials and a shortage of tools, but it was obvious that fewer men were taking a pride in their craftsmanship.