Walters wants Govt to be ‘realistic’

The Government’s track record in housing is nothing to boast about and it should be realistic about the number of houses it can build.

Opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Senator Ryan Walters made the point yesterday as the Senate debated a resolution to vest land at Holders Hill, St James, for a soon-tobe completed housing project.

He said Barbadians also had a genuine concern about the level of food security based on the usage of land for housing.

“It has been a political issue as well, but it is a genuine concern,” he said, adding that the Government should at least give the country the assurance that agricultural production was safe.

That, Walters said, was not too much to ask considering that land use was being shifted and there was a crisis of food and vegetable produce.

He said it was an ambitious plan to build 10 000 homes in five years when over the last six years that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) was in office, fewer than 500 were built, representing an average of 70 a year.

“And now . . . they are going to build 2 000 homes a year. It is not ambitious, it is nonsensical,” he said.

Barbadians wanted to hear the truth and wanted their leaders to be practical and honest, the Senator told the Chamber.

Walters said much had been made of the DLP’s record on housing but the Leader of Government Business Senator Lisa Cummins’ major reference was to

a DLP project at Coverley, Christ Church.

He listed projects in Marchfield and Work Hall in St Philip, Greens in St George, French Village and Four Hill in St Peter, and Country Park Towers, Valery, the Grotto and others as part of the DLP’s housing projects.

Walters said that based on the number of houses constructed so far, the BLP had nothing to show that it could undertake the proposed 10 000 homes. He said the contribution of construction to the gross domestic product (GDP) had declined under the BLP administration as between 2014 and 2018 construction contributed five per cent of GDP.

He also criticised the Government over the HOPE programme in which $60 million was spent and the houses were not completed.

“Sixty million-plus dollars later, taxpayers’ money have gone unaccounted for with this Government,” he said.

There was money to pay the chairman, the CEO, and consultants and management team but there was a lot not known about the project, Walters charged. ( AC)

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