Housing Research And Development Unit Progress Report, Period May 1976 - March 1977

Abstract

The last Joint Advisory Board meeting was held on Thursday 3rd June 1976. A major item discussed at this meeting was the financial situation of the Housing Reseach and Development Unit. The Board r~commended t.hat the Ministry of Housing and Social Services should attempt to find additional fun~s to cover the anticipated deficit for the financial year 1976/77. In November 1976 the Ministry of Hous Lnqvand Social Services informed the HRDU that no supplementary funds would be available, but that the Ministry had allocated the sum of K£ 17.000 for the HRDU for the coming financial years i.e. an increase of 70% over the previous years (see. apendix A-B-C-D). The difficulties of financial nature have not directly influenced the work of the HRDU so far, howc.ver a number of papers have been completed and their publication has been delayed because of the uncertainties surrounding the finances of the Unit. Two fully funded staff members have been appointed, an architect* and a civil engineer**, and the post of the architect/planner has been filled, as has the post of secretary. The HRDU now has the post of services engineer and economist remaining to be filled. The advertising for these posts has been temporarily suspended due to the financial situation. The HRDU appointed two counterparts, an architect and a sociologist in August 1976. The sociologist was selected for further studies in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and left the Unit in November 1976. The architect remained in the Unit until the expiry of his contract after 6 months. The Housing Research and Development Unit has been in existance for a period of 10 years. It is planned to mark this by a seminar on low-cost housing. A number of Government officials at various levels and people from the private sector have been contacted and have expressed interest and willingness to participate in the seminar by submitting paper~ for discussion. The students from the Faculty have been invited to participate. Members of the HRDU have participated in a seminar/workshop organized by the Institute of Development Studies and presented two papers,one of which has been selected for publication by the HRDU. *(as replacement for otto Kaszner who left the HRDU in August 1976)· **(these two new staff members are expected to take up their duties