Letters to the editor: Land costs, petrol prices, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, future leader

The price of petrol is worrying, says one reader. Photo/File

Visionary opportunity

As the land cost is often as much as 50 per cent of the final house price, it seems to me that the obvious way to lower prices dramatically would be for the landowner (I am thinking the council here) to retain ownership and simply charge a nominal land rent. The house owner could also have the option of purchasing the land at a later date, which would, of course, increase the value of his property. Additionally, it is sad that we cling to our antiquated building practices when there is a ready market for many thousands of new homes. Why, for example, has no one looked at setting up a factory to produce high-quality kit-set homes for on-site assembly? There are good examples in Europe of this approach, the fully insulated, clad and lined structural panels arriving on site complete with all plumbing, electrical, joinery, etc. This would minimise weather delays, improve quality and provide some reality to the wildly optimistic predictions as to how many new homes will be built over the next few years. I am convinced there is a golden opportunity here for someone with vision.
John Griggs
Omokoroa

Petrol worries

I buy my petrol in Te Puna. On Wednesday, May 17 the price was $1.039 for 91 octane and using my AA card got another 10 cents off. I went to Pyes Pa where the same brand of petrol was $1.169, being 13c dearer. I thought maybe Mayor Brownless had got his wish for an extra 10c for roading (News, May 17). Is this a case of other service stations making up the difference of cheaper petrol as is the case in Levin/Otaki/Waikanae. The price of petrol is high enough now with all the tax, how are families or those on limited income supposed to manage if Mayor Brownless gets his way?
Wendy Galloway
Omokoroa

Party time

Elected or appointed? I hear Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying that she was elected to do a job and she intends to get on with it. Perhaps we should remind Jacinda that she was not elected to the office, she was appointed to it by Winston Peters. Labour is not even the largest party in our Parliament.
Vaughan Chetwynd
Tauranga

Very proud

On Sunday I joined a group of men and women and we drove to Northcote to support a fantastic young man Dan Bidois who is National's candidate in the Northcote byelection. Having left school at 15 Dan became a butcher's apprentice, he then continued his education and received honours from Harvard University in the USA. For the last six years he has been an economist in Paris with the OECD and now he is back home in Northcote and will be in Parliament very soon if our door-knocking has anything to do with it. But Dan is one of the keys to our future, a young Maori lad whose education has given him qualifications which have taken him to the world, and in Parliament he will make a difference. It didn't just happen, he has had to work for what he is achieving. What a fine example to young men and women of how important their education is. His story is a vision for what we want for all our children, of any ethnicity. The Bidois clan must be very proud.

Margaret Murray-Benge
Bethlehem