Wednesday, October 16, 1974
41
Expenditure on the new towns including infrastructure,
housing, public buildings, including of course schools, clinics
and so on, is planned to rise from $280 n. to $740 m. next
m.
year and nearly $1,000 m. in '76/77, and to continue there-
after at rather above that level. The rate of build-up.
at least in these initial years, has been dictated not so
much by financial considerations since these figures are
well within the Financial Secretary's guidelines, as by physical constraints the simple problems of design, letting
of contracts, site formation, and getting on with such large
volumes of work.
Nevertheless these figures are very large, and
your Government has felt it right to build flexibility`
into its plans. Consequently the plans for each of the new
towns have been divided into small units which are constructionally
and socially and economically viable in themselves.
For each
of the towns as a whole Development Programmes have been
prepared embodying these units or packages. The Programmes
will be submitted to the Public Works Sub-Committee at the
November review as background documents, but they also are
working documents to be referred to when considering individual
projects at future reviews, and they indicate the time at
which action on each project must be taken if the proposed
timetable is to be kept. We hope in this way that the towns
can be developed in a balanced way whether in the years ahead
our resources suggest that the rate of construction should
be slower at one time or faster at another.
/HOUSING