Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues disclosed today that 10,000 house lots will be distributed this year, building on a queue of stellar achievements made since the PPP/C took office in 2020.
During her contribution to the 2024 budget debates in the National Assembly, Rodrigues proudly revealed that 30,355 Guyanese are now landowners and homeowners. Of that total, Minister Rodrigues said 13,834 women are empowered with ownership and can chart a course for their own lives. Another equally important statistic for her was that 16,094 young people are asset owners and now have their entire lives to build up their network.
Additionally, Minister Rodrigues said 28,016 people received low, moderate, and middle income house lots in the past three years.
“As part of our programme, we have to spend money to acquire new lands for housing. In this regard, we acquired 52 new areas for the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) for the period August 2020 to 2023. For 2024, you can expect 10,000 house lots will be delivered to Guyanese of every income category,” the minister said, adding that it is in stark contrast to the poor track record of the APNU+AFC regime.
Expounding on the failings of the former regime, Rodrigues said the APNU allocated 7534 house lots from June 2015 to August 2020. “And if you look at the pattern, there was a decline. In 2016, they did 2020; in 2017, they did 1131; and in 2018, they did 934…So it was going down. If they didn’t lose the No Confidence Motion, I don’t know what would have happened in 2019 because they made no capital investment for infrastructure development for three years…,” the minister said.
The politician went further to note that not only does this reflect pure incompetence, but exposes that the opposition does not understand the value of the housing sector. She said her conclusion is corroborated by the arguments made in the National Assembly over the past four days. In this regard, she noted that members like the AFC’s Kemraj Ramjattan have been quick to call the budget as “infrastructure heavy,” simultaneously exposing that he too is lacking of foresight. Rodrigues also noted that the opposition’s criticism that there is now greater opportunity for squander mania is also another one of its recycled falsehoods.
Rodrigues noted that in 2019, CH&PA said it will deliver 5000 house lots per year. The parliamentarian also referenced a quote by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the time, Lelon Saul. In an interview with the press, Saul had said: “I want you to understand, it costs approximately $3M to develop a house lot.” Rodrigues said Saul was right about that sum in those times.
Five years later, she revealed that there has been no astronomical increase. “In the year 2024, the cost for infrastructure, for the first phase, is estimated $2.5M per house lot and an additional $1M when we do the upgrades such as adding in water distribution lines …so we are working with an estimate of $3.5M…just a $500,000 increase,” the minister said.
Her point was that there is no slush fund lying around for the housing programme, thereby facilitating wanton corruption.
To further cement her arguments that infrastructure remains one of the key pillars necessary for lifting a nation out of poverty, Rodrigues referenced an academic paper by two leading World Bank economists: César Calderón and Luis Servén. Their report is titled: The Effects of Infrastructure Development on Growth and Income Distribution. (See link : https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/438751468753289185/pdf/WPS3400.pdf)
That report states: “Growth is positively affected by the stock of infrastructure assets, and income inequality declines with higher infrastructure quantity and quality…These two results combined suggest that infrastructure development can be highly effective to combat poverty.”
On this premise, Rodrigues said she nor the government will feel any sense of shame in investing in infrastructure. That programme will continue because the Housing Ministry is a “fruit bearing tree,” the minister said.
She concluded that the vitriol being spewed by the opposition flows from their envious hearts as they have been put to shame; they have seen what is truly possible with a well crafted strategy for the housing sector.
