Prescod suggests changes to land and housing policy

Member of Parliament for St Michael East, Trevor Prescod believes the island’s land and housing policies do not go far enough in meeting Barbadians’ needs.

He made the suggestion in Parliament on Tuesday morning during debate on a Resolution to vest 18, 909 square metres of land in Worthing, Christ Church to the National Housing Corporation (NHC).

Prescod said he hoped that having become a Republic, the Government would take steps to improve the way land and housing are allocated and distributed.

“.…Sometimes I believe that the concept of housing is too stereotyped, the concept of land distribution is too stereotyped, and we need to expand the debate on housing at least to respond to what the majority of Barbadians are talking about.

“The housing policy has just emerged over the years, the land policy has just emerged over the years, and we have not done much to at least utilise land for specific purposes. We have not gathered the type of enthusiasm and the inspiration that will enter into other aspects of landlessness and homelessness, even within individual communities within Barbados,” Prescod said.

“I figure that the land policy is short-changed at this particular time and I just want to send that signal that that is going to be a very major debate.”

The veteran Parliamentarian said that apart from policy, Government had to look at the execution of that policy “and the manner in which we select lands sometimes for housing and how some constituencies find it difficult to get land space in the specific constituencies”.

“While the demands are coming from a specific location, there is no land space in that area that will allow us to keep people within a community, in the area that they interact in, but also in an area that their families lived for a considerable time. Because of the way in which the policy goes, it scatters the family all across Barbados,” he said.

Prescod also suggested that with land space a precious commodity, the Government might have to consider building high-rise units.

“We have to use land space for housing units and use it in a very optimum manner, that if we have 6,000 square feet or 10,000 square feet we can get a number of units by not spreading and trying to utilise the width of the land space but at least going vertically with the construction of the housing,” he recommended. (RB)