The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) says it supports the move by the Coalition Government to build communities rather than allocate ‘house lots’ as was the custom under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration.

A release from the PNCR on Tuesday noted that building viable communities has always been the thrust of the PNC’s housing policy in and out of office.

“In our Party’s first ten years in office, we developed a Housing Programme that provided housing of satisfactory standards and sizes for low and middle income families. We stimulated Co-operatives, Self-help and other forms of non-profit- making, means of building communities. We changed the landscape of housing and homeownership in Guyana,” the release noted.

The release further noted that the PNCR in Government increased the housing stock by producing new accommodation at the rate of over 4000 units per annum.

“It was under the PNC that communities such as Tuber, Tucville, Amelias Ward, North and South Ruimveldt, Festival City, Roxanne Burnham Gardens, Melanie Damishana, Stevedore Scheme, The Wismar-Rockstone Housing Project, Dazzle housing scheme, and many others were developed. It is apposite to note that under the PNC, we did not give the working man or woman an undeveloped piece of land, we gave them a key to a well-built house in a community with paved roads, light and running water.”

According to the release, the PPP’s housing policy (house lot policy) has failed, noting that hundreds of acres of land allocated for housing remain idle and undeveloped; communities were allowed to be developed with adequate infrastructure, water, light, roads, etc.

“The 1000 homes project, also known as the Turnkey project, was officially launched at Providence in 2014 by the PPP Government. However, despite being allocated, several of the almost 50 completed houses remain unoccupied because of poor construction and finishing, coupled with structural faults. Also this programme was riddled with corruption and poor management.”

It is for this reason that the PNCR supports the new initiative of the Ministry of Communities to replace the 100 homes project with Apartments and Condominiums to provide the critical housing need for especially low and middle income families.

The PNCR calls on the lending institutions to provide incentives and assistance to the house building industry through mortgage financing and short-term loans for repairs, extensions of homes and home improvement and long term loans for new construction and the rebuilding of condemned houses.

“Guyana’s housing problem cannot be considered in isolation from the economy as a whole. It must, inevitably, be related to the whole process of social and economic development of our country.”