Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday acknowledged that the cost of constructing a house and other facilities has risen steeply but highlighted the government’s efforts to ensure housing is affordable for all Guyanese.
Construction costs have increased locally because of a shortage of skilled people and the demand for commodities driving up the cost of supplies such as stone, sand, cement and steel.
Jagdeo said this reality is not lost on the government and reminded of a slew of interventions taken over the last three years to bring relief to people which include increasing the disposal income of households and providing some supplies, free of cost.
“We recognize that the price for labour has gone up, [the price for] sand and stone have gone up and generally building a house is more expensive,” Jagdeo noted.
So what has the government done?
According to the VP, nine quarry licenses were awarded with seven already operating. “We have already seen [the price for] stone fall back to $10, 000, it went up to about $15, 000.”
Additionally, the Vice President has repeatedly informed of government efforts to ensure there is a steady supply of sand and the price remains affordable. So more sand pits are being opened with the state looking to operate the new pits to keep the cost down.
Additionally, if a citizen is building a low-income house, the government has introduced a programme where persons can get cement and steel free to help offset increases in costs in other area.
“We then said we are prepared to build for you and then take you to the bank,” Jagdeo added as he reminded of the construction of thousands of core homes and young professional homes across the country.
Additionally, taxes were removed on a number of building materials and also from income arising from loans in the housing sector, allowing for lower mortgage rates.
But Jagdeo observed that a major problem is also the availability of labour; a shortage that is driving up labour costs.
So he said the government is pushing people to earn more by providing jobs; thousands of housewives are now employed as part-time workers and are being encouraged to take government scholarships to study and train.
Higher certification means higher pay.
And so, the VP also said the situation justifies the need for the importation of labour.
“We are losing skilled people to the oil and gas sector, the private sector is complaining about losing people at the bottom to the government.
“We don’t have serfdom… You can’t bind people to a job because you want cheap labour… we have to equip as many of our people to get better paying jobs,” Jagdeo explained.
And so Jagdeo encouraged people to enroll in the Board of Industrial Training (BIT) programmes.
