Housing

Thanks to the efforts of previous governments, and to the determination of our citizens, New Zealanders are generally well housed. No New Zealand government could tolerate a situation in which large numbers of citizens were without satisfactory housing. But the general well-being is not shared by all groups. Financial barriers are erected against first home seekers and low income earners, and inner city residents face relatively high rents for relatively poor accommodation.

The present administration has made strenuous efforts to minimise the financial barriers and has encouraged the building of more houses than ever before. But still there is talk of a housing shortage. Thousands of New Zealanders know the frustration of being on a State or Council waiting list.

As in so many other fields, it is not so much a question of shortage as a question of distribution. The number of untenanted dwellings is tending to increase while the number of occupants per dwelling continues to fall.

Population stabilisation policies would have the most significant long term effect on New Zealand's housing problems. As an illustration of this, the present administration attacked 'the housing shortage' vigorously in 1974 by building in the region of 35,000 new houses. But in the same year there was a net gain of 30,000 new immigrants. At the end of it we still had a 'housing shortage'.

Housing Administration

The Values Party believes that the proper functions of Head Office would be better performed through a Housing Commission than through a centralised Housing Corporation.

Progressive Homebuilding

The Values Party would introduce a Progressive Homebuilding Scheme to cater for those who wish to build gradually over a period of time. The scheme would cover newly-planned buildings, partly completed buildings, and completed buildings undergoing extension and improvement. Such a scheme would offer:

• secure land tenure for the occupier;
• professional building services available to the home builder;
• adequate building supervision available to the owner;
• loan assistance for the costs qf design, supervision, specialist sub-contracts, materials.

Progressive homebuilding assistance could be conditional upon:

• a housing deposit or building fund being saved;
• design to be completed within 6 months of approval.
• building. being sufficiently completed to occupy within 2 years;
• the building being completed as designed within 6 years;
• controls on selling or subletting.

Progressive homebuilding assistance could be tied into suspensory Home Improvement Loans.

Planning and Design:

If New Zealand continues the present patterns of trying to satisfy the residential needs of the community in a piecemeal fashion, insoluble problems will be created for ourselves and our children. The carving up of good agricultural land into 10-acre blocks or suburban subdivisions is not in the national interest. The day of the quarter-acre section is gone for most people in the cities; New Zealand already has enough of them.

The Values Party does not support the massing of large areas of public housing. It supports a planning procedure in which the material and non-material needs of citizens are met by being considered throughout a process of discussion and consultation, and by being mandatory upon private or community developers. Social and commercial services, public amenities, recreation, access to public transport, and the needs of community development must be considered during planning and before building. We are not convinced that existing legislation is satisfactory in this regard.