Over 200 house lots were distributed yesterday , when the Ministry of Housing and Water took its ‘One Stop Shop” to the Blairmont Community Center ground, Region Five. Residential lots were allocated in Block D 1 Bath, and 20 commercial lots in Hope, Experiment, Waterloo and Block 1 Bath.

From left, Land Development and Administration Manager, Ministry of Housing, Denise King-Tudor; Acting CEO, GWI Yuri Chandisingh; Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali; Regional Chairman, Harrynarine Baldeo; and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Water, Emil Mc Garrel.

The Ministry initiated the One-Stop- Shop programme to help reduce the backlog in house lot applications and since its introduction, the Ministry has surpassed its target set in the 2009 Budget to distribute 4500 house lots and land titles.

To date, about 4500 transactions have been processed from the outreaches held recently in Regions Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten, and similar exercises are expected to be conducted in other regions over the next few months, including Regions One, Two and Nine.

Government will invest $6B in the development of new and existing housing schemes, and put $2B in a revolving fund to assist those who have been provided house lots but lack financing.

Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, pointed out that access to finance, especially low income financing and concessionary financing, has always posed difficulties and challenges in developing countries, and this commitment is also responsive to the needs of the people and to the development of the housing sector.

“Lets us say that out of the 200 house lots we allocated, 150 persons commence building this year, and we apply the minimum of five persons per house; that is 750 new jobs that will be created here in Region Five,” he hypothesized as he spoke of the jobs to be created due to the building of houses.

Region Five residents at the Ministry of Housing and Water’s ‘One Stop Shop’ at Blairmont Community Center ground.

This is the string benefits that the housing programme and department bring with it. If each land owner decides to spend a minimum of $2.5M for the construction of a low income house, and you have 100 persons constructing, that is an immediate stimulus of $250M in the local economy of Region Five,” Minister Ali added.

He explained that it is important to have the private sector and the banks on board with the development agenda, and appealed to the commercial banks to re-examine some of their stringent positions and determine if a flexible framework to be responsive to the needs of the people could be established.

At yesterday’s ‘One Stop Shop’, the Central Housing and Planning Authority of the Ministry conducted interviews, allocated house lots and distributed land titles and transports.

Officials from the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) were also present to interface with customers on billing queries and leakage reports, while officials from the New Building Society (NBS) facilitated loan agreements.

The ‘One Stop Shop’ Outreach was introduced to increase awareness of housing services that are available in the public and private sectors, while providing a responsive service to meet the needs of the public. (GINA)