BLP ‘upset’  over Govt’s housing success

THE Barbados Labour Party (BLP) could not get its housing programme into “second gear”, despite having record levels of revenue during its three terms in office, said Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy.“We now have it in overdrive and that is upsetting them,” he told the House of Assembly on Tuesday, during a resolution seeking to vest a parcel of Crown land at Constant, St George, in the National Housing Corporation for the purpose of housing development. Sealy charged that there were still more than 20 000 people on the waiting list for housing at the National Housing Corporation and this, he said, was a “very serious issue”.The representative for St Michael South Central referred to the Stuarts Land project at Tweedside Road in his constituency as an example of the BLP’s tardiness in housing development.He said in 2003 a billboard was installed advertising the project and he went to Parliament every year for five years asking when it would be started.“We came to office and in ten short months it has been started and virtually completed. The last Government could not find two little coppers, in times of plenty, to put up 20 units in Tweedside Road,” he stated, pointing out that the project was also carried out by a small contractor.On the issue of small contractors not getting contracts to build houses, Sealy defended Government by pointing out that there were modest projects that were given to medium and small contractors. Large contractors, unlike small contractors, had the capacity to deal with big projects, he added. (MB)