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Factors Affecting Supply During or since the depression the supply of housing has been retarded by — {a) Lack of finance in the early 1930's which restricted demand for new houses and caused overcrowding of existing ones. In 1932-3-3 only 1,496 building permits were issued for new houses in urban areas, compared with 11,530 in 1949-50. The average urban building rate from 1927 to 1930, before the depression, was about seven new houses per thousand of population annually. In 1932-33 this ratio fell to 1-6, then it slowly rose again to 8-0 per thousand of population in 1939. (b) War needs, which diverted building from houses to military camps and stores. The housing rate of construction dropped sharply to 1-0 per thousand of population in 1943, but rose again rapidly to reach 8-9 per thousand in 1949-50. •(c) The shortage of labour in recent years, which has prevented the building rate rising sufficiently to meet the increasing demand. In 1932 several thousand building tradesmen were unemployed, but to-day the position is reversed, with the building industry working to capacity and having vacancies for several thousand more workers. {d) The shortage of materials which became apparent soon after the depression, when the demand for houses grew rapidly. The war needs absorbed stocks and current production for several years. Since the war there have been no stocks to meet interruptions in current supplies. The building-supply industries have not been able to obtain enough workers to ensure that materials are on hand for people erecting houses when and where they want them, without delays. (e) Longer time taken to build houses. One reason for this is that erratic supplies of materials cause frequent hold-ups in building. Even where builders are able to work on another site while awaiting supplies much time is wasted in transferring men and equipment, and in looking for materials. In 1949-50 the average contract for a State house took forty-nine weeks to complete, compared with a third of that time before the war. Another factor affecting construction time is the practice of builders in undertaking several houses at tne same time. (/) More houses being partly empty. The population is not spread evenly through existing dwellings, and the census of 1945 showed that the number of underoccupied houses had greatly increased, even if allowance is made for the absence of servicemen. At the time of the 1936 census there were 65,095 private dwellings of over four rooms with only one or two occupants. At the 1945 census there were 90,989 such houses with one or two occupants. Appendix B shows the numbers of dwellings which were under-occupied and overcrowded at the 1945 census date. Under-occupied houses have increased in numbers, partly because of the ageing population and the growing economic independence of elderly couples. In 1949 there were 115,000 more people over the age of sixty than in 1932. The size of this age-group has doubled, while the total population increase is only 23 per cent, in this period. Increasing prosperity has enabled many older people to retain their homes after their families have grown up and left home without having to share them with boarders or tenants. Until this year there was also a reluctance to let parts of large houses because owners found it difficult to regain possession of their property if tenants proved to be unsatisfactory.

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