Tax breaks, financial aid, faster access to young professional housing – VP on boost for homebuilders

– as safer communities, climate-resilient infrastructure on cards for next term

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has outlined some bold initiatives for its next term in office with an expanded housing programme and community enhancement initiatives to enhance the safety and security of citizens.
Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo detailed these and other plans during his weekly press conference on Thursday. He noted that the Government needs to build more communities to cater to the growing number of Guyanese who are coming of age to apply for house lots and then put systems in place to help them finance the construction of their homes.
Already, the PPP/C administration has a host of assistance programmes for homebuilders, ranging from the construction of homes, the Steel and Cement Subsidy programme, the removal of VAT on locally produced construction materials, increasing the ceiling for low-income mortgages at commercial banks from $8 million to $20 million, and restoring the ceiling on Mortgage Interest Relief for housing loans to $30 million, among others.
According to Jagdeo, the PPP/C will create additional mechanisms outside of the mortgage benefits, through the taxation system, to support homeowners.
“We’re going to use the taxation system to give greater allowances and deductibles for people who are building homes… We’re going to continue with co-home building… We’re going to continue vastly expanding young professional homes; we’ll accelerate the pace. And then, we are going to support people financially and materially – we’re already doing that with the steel and cement foundation – but support them financially also to build more homes,” he stated.
However, with plans to establish more communities across the country, the VP assured that existing communities would not be left behind, as he highlighted initiatives like a massive concrete drain programme to improve drainage; installation of street lights; enhancing sport and recreational facilities; security cameras and police outposts/patrols to tackle crime; improving garbage collection; and addressing pollution like noise.
“These are the things we want to focus on … so people can live a safer and better quality of life in their own communities. So, it will be more communities through expansion of the housing programme and also safer communities by massive investments,” the VP stressed.
He went on to point out that with the Government already embarking on a massive infrastructure transformation programme across the country with plans for major projects like new four-lane highways, bridges, port facilities, airport expansion and power plants, the next term will see emphasis placed on building out infrastructure to serve specific purposes.
For instance, Jagdeo pointed to economic growth. He explained that quality infrastructure supports increased income and income diversification of all businesses, big and small. He added that building out new infrastructure also opens up more land that can be used for commercial activities.
Another area that the Government plans to use infrastructure to enhance is social welfare – supporting things like education and healthcare delivery across the country. Improving the quality of life of Guyanese will also be a top priority through initiatives like sport and recreational facilities.
The VP also spoke about the importance of having climate-resilient infrastructure.
“So, those four areas are the objectives for us to build the infrastructure, not infrastructure just for the purpose of [building]. It’s not a vanity thing or because we want to spend money… These four objectives are vital for a good quality of life for our people,” he asserted.
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Also key to enhancing the quality of lives for Guyanese is support for income and economic diversification. To this end, Jagdeo detailed plans to expand thriving economic activities to other regions across Guyana.
Focusing on support for small businesses, he noted that initiatives like a Diversification Support Centre and investment in a development bank to offer zero-interest loans will expand commercial activities.
With the country’s oil and gas sector mainly concentrated within Regions Three and Four, the VP noted that plans are in play to have more regions benefit from this burgeoning industry and create more jobs.
“We will then also redirect some of the momentum into places like Berbice from the oil and gas industry… We’re already saturated labour-wise in [Regions Three and Four]. So, if you take, for example, the new gas development hub that will be done [in Berbice], it will have a major impact on Regions Five and Six… [So, there will be a] major shift in focus of some of the larger projects in the outlying areas to lend momentum to these areas.”
“This, along with the opportunity for people to invest more in instruments created by the Government, would allow more people to earn more money and to have better-paying jobs right across our country for people who need those jobs, and it would lead also to the expansion of the entrepreneurial base of our country. So, that’s another big focus that we want to look at,” VP Jagdeo stated.