More house lots, houses for citizens this year – Minister Croal
Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, M.P, on Friday, said more house lots and houses will be provided to citizens in 2022, as $12.4 billion has been earmarked for infrastructural development in housing schemes.
Minister Croal was at the time making his contributions to the national budget debate at the 41st sitting of the 12th Parliament.
In addition to making more house lots and homes available, he said, for the first time, banks will offer the lowest mortgage interest rates, making it easy for persons to access loans to build or purchase their homes.
Minister Croal told the house that under the APNU+AFC’s tenure, there was no clear structure or focus, in fact, the housing and water sectors were starved of funds and real investments, including budgetary allocations.
“A measly 7,530 house lots which obviously did not dent the backlog was allocated, they did not spearhead any innovative project or introduce any transformative intervention in this sector. But these members come here at every budget with these lame ramblings and offer nothing constructive,” he said.
When the PPP/C Government left office in 2015, the construction and upgrading of the interlink road from Mocha to Great Diamond, the construction of the four-lane highway from Mandela to Eccles, and the development works from Prospect to Great Diamond had begun.
Minister Croal noted that more than $10 billion was already expended on new housing areas in Eccles, Herstelling, Farm, Covent Garden, Perseverance, Peter’s Hall, Diamond and Mocha on the East Bank of Demerara.
“But Mr. Speaker, at a time when Guyana had discovered oil and citizens and investors were hungry for land for residential, commercial and industrial purposes, the Coalition, was, as we have proven all week, like headless chickens. They played musical chairs with the stewardship of the ministry, practically downgraded it to a department, and were indecisive, vacuous, vapid, and insipid,” he added.
In just over one year, the government completed the acquisition of more than 2,000 acres of land east of the Diamond Housing Scheme, and completed the design and layout of new housing areas within this zone.
Infrastructural works began on the construction of 1000 young professional units, in addition to the young professional houses to be constructed at LBI and the moderate-income units at Cummings Lodge.
Additionally, 50 low-income houses were constructed at Prospect, 153 moderate income homes at Cummings Lodge, Onderneeming and Amelia’s Ward and 100 for young professionals at Providence.
Some 228 home improvement subsidies to the tune of $114 million were distributed, while billions of dollars were spent to significantly upgrade the infrastructure in housing developments in Regions One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Nine and Ten.
“The combined totality of our achievements in fewer than two years far outweighs those of the members on the other side during their five-year reign of taxes,” Minister Croal said.