BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS Labour Day draws near, the Government has reassured civil servants that the Home Mortgage Scheme designed for middle-class workers may resume shortly after the National Housing Corporation (NHC) completes housing projects for low-income earners.
The Civil Servants Home Mortgage Scheme was conducted between the Government and the St. Kitts-Nevis Development Bank through a financing arrangement from the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board. The arrangement offered 100 percent financing through the Bank, based on the number of years individuals have worked in the public service.
According to Prime Minister Douglas, discussions are currently ongoing in Cabinet as government officials work toward a timely and appropriate way to resume the programme.
“There have been very many demands on the government by public servants to resume this important facility which has provided a lot of improvement generally in people’s living conditions. We have been discussing at the Cabinet level how we can have this particular scheme resumed so that civil servants can again benefit from the arrangement,” Douglas said in a recent town hall meeting in Sandy Point.
The Prime Minister informed that at the moment the NHC is fulfilling initial promises to individuals who had applied under the programme and had been approved but were delayed due to lack of funds in the corporation. Douglas indicated that the focus of the NHC at this point is to eradicate all outside bathroom facilities after which it would build homes for low-income earners.
“The policy of the government at the moment is that for people who are using outside bathroom facilities, we want to change this from our country. And so we are attacking that kind of problem first!
“Once that group would have been satisfied, then the NHC will continue to build low-income houses for persons who are low-income earners. They will not be providing houses for persons who do not fall in that category unless these were promises that were already made about two to three years ago when they were building houses generally for people,” he added.
Although Dr. Douglas gave no clear timeframe or intended modifications to be made to the original scheme, he informed that his government would keep the issue under consideration as he views it to be important to civil servants.
“This is important for us as a policy, and the government will try its very best to resume this particular programme as quickly as possible,” Douglas said.
