CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – THE housing revolution on Nevis is very much alive. This is according to the Minister of Lands and Housing, the Hon. Robelto Hector, who made the remarks at the launch of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Nevis Housing and Land Development Corporation (NHLDC).
Hector told the crowd gathered last Friday outside the old treasury building in Charlestown that the current administration has built some 190 homes since coming to power in 2006, compared to the 122 built by the past government in 14 years. He said this consisted of 150 affordable homes and 40 on private lands, which he described as a new and creative policy of the administration.
The minister also pointed out that government’s civil service programme has assisted 29 civil servants to own their dream home.
“This programme is the envy of many Caribbean islands. We are hoping to extend this programme to include police officers. This must not be confused with our policy of offering houses to policemen in all our housing projects.”
Minister Hector went on to say that in three years the NRP government has abolished “the punitive 12 percent administration fee that was charged by the previous administration”.
“In keeping with our new policy of charging first time buyers a lower price for land, we have also encouraged financial institutions to give first time buyers or land owners 100 percent financing on their land purchase.”
He said that on average, a quarter acre of land is $20 000 cheaper under the new administration.
“We have sold small businesses that are deserving of expansion land at a cheaper price. This is evident in the commercial area at Pinney’s.”
He continued: “The Pinney’s Development Scheme had seemed elusive to the former administration but today we have completed that project where persons are already building their homes.”
Pointing at Cherry Gardens, the minister said Nevis could boast of the largest housing project in the Federation, and that government has completed the infrastructure in all its projects. He also said the NHLDC has provided the public with nine different designs for housing and 35 acres of land for future sale.
According to the Housing Minister, this is a far cry from the state of affairs when the Nevis Reformation Party came to power.
He said the new government’s first order of business was to commission an independent audit of the NHLDC which revealed, among other concerns, the indebtedness of the corporation of $51M, and delinquency on one of its loans by some $900 000 with threatened legal actions by one of the lending institutions.
The Minister said the audit also revealed that loan funds were not being used for the negotiated purposes and that there was an absence of audited accounts since 2000.
“We also realised that there was no recorded inventory of the building materials at the corporation and that there was an astonishing accumulation or loss of $15M during the period January to June 2006.”
Minister Hector said it was found that there was an employee who was earning a monthly salary much higher than that of the existing manager.
According to Hector, it was not business as usual and as a young minister he felt that closing the corporation was an option. However, Premier Joseph Parry felt otherwise and quickly issued an order for things to be turned around.
“In less than three years of the Premier’s request, the corporation is making the greatest contribution it has ever made to this country.”
He exclaimed: “In short, in the nick of time this government has turned things around – we have built homes on private land, we have given land to the landless, we have allocated our housing without any regard to political affiliation.”
Friday’s ceremony also saw the launching of NHLDC raffle which will be drawn on December 24 and has a two-bedroom house at stake.
