Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues yesterday said that the government is expected to allocate some 10,000 house lots in 2024, as she stressed that the government is making investments in projects that add value to people’s lives.
“For this year, 2024, 10,000 house lots will be delivered to Guyanese of every income category”, Rodrigues told the National Assembly while making her presentation for budget 2024.
By contrast, she said that the APNU+AFC during their tenure allocated 7,534 house lots from June 2015 – August 2020. “As a matter of fact, it declined if you look at the pattern, in 2016 they delivered 2,020 in 2017 1,131, in 2018 934, it was going down.”
In comparison, she pointed out that 30, 355 people have become land and homeowners thus far under the current PPP/C administration. “13, 834 women are empowered with ownership and can charter a course for their own lives, 16, 094 young people are asset owners and now have their entire lives to build up their net worth”, she revealed.
Furthermore, she added, that 28, 016 people received low, moderate, and middle-income house lots in three years.
“Mr. Speaker as part of our programme we have to spend money to acquire new lands for housing, we have acquired 51 new areas for the Central Housing and Planning Authority for the period August 2020 to 2023 for new housing development.”
Calling the Ministry of Housing and Water a “fruit-bearing tree”, Rodrigues stressed that it takes a carefully crafted strategy to deliver affordable housing to every segment of society across Guyana – something which the opposition cannot understand.
“The housing programme under this PPP/C government is the most successful ever in the history of our country. It is unparalleled anywhere in the world and certainly cannot be compared to the mediocrity offered by the APNU+AFC while they were in government. The housing sector, the progress of the housing sector is visible for all to see, it is visible, you can see it, you can feel it, you can touch it, you can measure it.”
Stressing that their focus has been on making homeownership affordable countrywide, she said that they reversed the VAT on locally produced building and construction materials “to help with ensuring that home ownership becomes more affordable.”
Further to facilitate affordable financing for home ownership, Rodrigues said, that they collaborated with banks which resulted in reduced interest rates as opposed to the global context where interest rates are rising as a result of inflation.
“The government raised the NBS mortgage ceiling to $20m to give low-income and middle-income families access to more financing so that they can build bigger homes or homes that are of a better quality, they cut it in half when they (APNU+AFC) were in government, that’s the mortgage interest relief, the mortgage interest relief ceiling was cut in half”, she said.
In terms of the housing construction programme, Rodrigues said while her party did not promise to build houses in their manifesto they saw the need to promote occupancy and home ownership, and “we started the construction of low, moderate and middle-income homes including the young professional homes.”
Turning to water, the minister said that they expanded treated water countrywide, and with their programme they will be increasing coverage on the coastland from 52% to 90% by 2025, “and that work has started already, seven water treatment plants are under construction, five are at the tender process right now and we will ensure that we increase our water coverage to 90%.”
In terms of the hinterland, she stated that coverage has increased from 46% in 2020 to 82% at the end of 2023. “Through budget 2024 we will achieve 93% and by the end of 2025 we will have 100% access in the hinterland.”
Meanwhile, seemingly in response to Opposition Member of Parliament, Khemraj Ramjattan who slammed the government’s allocation to infrastructure in budget 2024 on Tuesday during his presentation to the National Assembly, Rodrigues argued that there has been research and academic papers written on the link between investment in infrastructure and economic growth. “There are also studies done on bridging the global infrastructure gap and studies on how developed countries have harnessed infrastructure and technology to propel development and reduce poverty while developing countries have been unable to achieve similar levels of development and huge portions of their population remain impoverished because of a lack of basic infrastructure.”
She stated that the evidence suggests that infrastructure is essential for a strong economy “and has the potential to lift families out of poverty by reducing inequalities.”
According to her, the investment in infrastructure facilitates the provision of jobs, ensuring citizens have access to safe water and food with increased farm-to-market roads, access to housing, quality healthcare, and schools to receive education, “these are basic human rights and we haven’t gotten to other things like affordable electricity, internet connectivity, and so on.”
Rodrigues yesterday also asserted that the ministry has no time to lose in ensuring the interests of all Guyanese are met adding that the people of the country need a government with a vision and plan “and the people who know how to implement a budget and they have that with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.”
Furthermore, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill in the National Assembly yesterday in support of the allocation to the infrastructure programme challenged the members of the opposition to highlight which projects they would deem not fit to be a part of budget 2024.
Edghill who repeatedly called on members of the opposition to stand up and say which project they would like to be dropped to reduce the allocation, stressed that all of the allocations are of benefit to citizens of Guyana.
