Nat’l Assembly to be briefed on new direction for CH&PA

Mar 22, 2017 News

The recently appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Central Housing and Planning

CH&PA CEO, Lelon Saul

Authority (CH&PA), Lelon Saul, has started to coordinate the information and studies that are resident within the housing authority to assist in the preparation and compilation of government’s white paper for its new housing programme.
This is according to Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, who is expected to table the white paper, in the National Assembly very soon.
The white paper will provide the National Assembly with a clear understanding of what the government is seeking to achieve with its new housing programme, a release from Government explained yesterday.
It will provide information pertaining to the construction techniques, the method of payment for units, mortgage arrangement for recipients and the criteria for allocation, among others.
Minister Bulkan told state media that the white paper would speak to all of the lessons that would have been learnt in the recent past.
“It would seek to take advantage of both the successes and having identified what were the deficiencies or failure out of that past policy, it would identify what would be the strategic direction and where the government’s priority should be,” the minister explained.
The preparation of the white paper is in keeping with the new data-driven policy of outlining and planning development in the housing sector.
The minister explained that this absence of having timely and reliable data in relation to the usefulness of the inherited housing programme, resulted in inaction of the CH&PA in 2016.
The minister explained that the previous board of the CH&PA, as part of critically reviving and evaluating the housing programme that was inherited, needed to satisfy themselves that continuation of the programme was in the best

Ministry of Communities, Ronald Bulkan

national interest.
“They do not feel compelled on the basis of business as usual and to continue the programme that was inherited and …it is not an approach that I could find fault in, because once these resources are committed and the funds are spent, it cannot be recalled,” the minister highlighted.
He noted that the extraordinary high rate of un-occupancy in many of the government schemes was reason enough for the board to question, and have a second look at the continuation of the inherited programme, and to look at having a different housing priority.
“It is a result of that examination that the resources are now on hand that they can be committed to this first phase of the construction of housing units,” the minister pointed out.
As part of ensuring proper planning for housing development, the CH&PA recently concluded a housing profile.
The Housing Authority is also working with the Inter-American Development Bank to support the development of a national housing strategy, which in addition to ensuring that the housing needs of the public are properly identified, will reaffirm government’s trust and confidence that it is moving in the right direction, with regards to its national housing programme, the government release said.
CH&PA is facing major problems with little lands and more than 20,000 applications on file for house lots and turn-key homes. The allocation of house lots, which formed the major part of the policy for the previous administration, virtually slowed under the current government which came in office in May 2015.
The slowdown in the housing sector has affected a number of key areas of the economy, including transportation, banking, hardware, contracting and forestry.
Recently, Government announced plans to build over 700 home units, including townhouses and duplexes, in a number of regions as part of $5B programme targeting low income earners.
CH&PA, the agency charged with overseeing housing development, is reportedly set to benefit also from lands owned by the Guyana Sugar Corporation, on the East Coast of Demerara.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News