Opposition Member of Parliament, Annette Ferguson, has called on the Government to not just issue house lots, but to ensure those lots are ready for the start of construction.

On Wednesday, MP Ferguson told the Assembly that while the Government boasts of allocating 41,000 house lots since 2020, the majority of those allottees have not seen their lots, which remain in undeveloped areas. She said there are thousands of allottees still awaiting their agreements of sale even after paying millions to the Housing Ministry.

“For you to come to the House to say to the people of Guyana that you have allocated some 50,000 house lots is far from the truth. How can 50,000 house lots be given out when you have people from 2010 still waiting, never received a call from the ministry, 2009 waiting, 2011 waiting? These are the evidence of people, Mr. Speaker, who are yet to receive a call from the Ministry of Housing to be given their house lots. And I know that the Honorable member, the Ministry never issued out 50,000 house lots,” the Opposition MP told the House.

MP Ferguson also accused the Government of including in its figures, house lots and housing units that were allocated under the APNU+AFC Administration.

She said the Ministry of Housing and Water continues to fail to present any report on squatter settlement or informal settlements as it promised it would more than three years ago.

“The Ministry claims to have developed a total of 85 new housing schemes. Well, Mr. Speaker, I challenge Minister Croal this afternoon to lay a list of all 85 new housing schemes that they developed,” MP Ferguson said.

She said in places like La Bonne Intention on the East Coast of Demerara, many of the housing units are incomplete and have a number of defects and remain unoccupied. Ferguson accused the Government of boasting of unfinished works, and allocating lots with no access to the lands.

“Mr. Speaker, this is what is currently happening in LBI, unfinished work! Unfinished work! Unfinished work Mr. Speaker! Unfinished work Mr. Speaker!” the Opposition MP said as she waved before the House photos of the incomplete buildings.

She said while the Ali Administration continues to accuse the former APNU+AFC Government of not doing anything for housing, the records would point to housing developments in LBI, Prospect, Cummings Lodge, Providence, Mon Repos, Experiment and Skeldon.

She said when the the Coalition took office in 2015, it inherited a backlog of 60,000 applications and it did its best to reduce that number.   

“As a responsible and visionary government, we rolled up our sleeves and are proud to have invested over $2 billion from the housing fund to rectify the myriad of issues in houses built before May 2015, which were left to languish due to the PPP/C’s negligence,” she said.

Going forward, the APNU+AFC is recommending that there should be the introduction of a rent-to-own system, that allows persons to pay a monthly rent in the place of a mortgage until the total cost of the house is covered.

The programme, MP Ferguson said, would target people who are unable to secure a mortgage from the commercial banks.

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