…1800 more to follow this week
The Ministry of Housing and Water has managed to allocate 3500 house lots since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) took office four months ago – which is half of the amount that was issued during the APNU/AFC administration’s five years stint.
Within Friday and Saturday, another 1800 will be issued through the Ministry’s Dream Realised initiative, in collaboration with the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA). This is in effort to reduce the backlog of 70,000 housing applications in the system.
Scores of successful applicants would have turned up to secure their titles, as private insurance companies, contractors and banking agencies also participated to assist stakeholders.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Minister within the Housing Ministry, Susan Rodrigues shared that they would have inherited operations with no strategic housing policy. As such, work begun immediately to kickstart the distribution of house lots, as well as restore lost confidence in the government.
“All of the odds were against us when we took office in August of this year. People had lost confidence in the Government. People had lost confidence in the Ministry of Housing because of the previous administration’s own admission that hey only allocated 7,000 house lots in five years. In our first four months in office, we have allocated half of that,” the Minister highlighted.
The new administration is seeking to allocate some 50,000 house lots in its first term, which will amount to 10,000 per year. Rodrigues once again committed government’s assurance in fulfilling this mandate.
“Now is the time for action and delivery…and assure that you made no mistake in electing our government into office” she asserted.
Meanwhile, Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal said these initiatives bring people closer to owning a home, despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many of you have been waiting all these years for an allocation and I’m sure along the way you were frustrated at the time which it has taken…Indeed, we have to make up for the lost time and keep pace with the demand for housing by our citizens. So despite the challenges that COVID-19 has brought, our government has a mandate to meet its target of allocating 50,000 house lots over the next five years,” Minister Croal stated.
