$300m compensation backlog for land acquisitions

The Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland said Tuesday it was grappling with a $300 million backlog in compensation owed to landowners whose properties were seized for public projects, with disputes over valuations and administrative hurdles causing years of delays in payouts.

While the government has made payments over the last three years, many landowners remain in limbo.

The issue has been a long-standing frustration for property owners who have lost land to public projects but have waited years, even decades, for compensation.

Minister Sutherland told Parliament that while some progress has been made—with more than £100 million paid to at least three landowners—many cases remain unresolved.

“This administration is seeking to address over $300m in compensation. We have started that process,” he said, adding that efforts are ongoing to settle outstanding payments.

“Compensation has been a major challenge . . . . When you acquire someone’s land and you have a valuation from the Barbados Revenue Authority and the Land Tax Department, but their [evaluator] prices the land higher than the government does, many landowners are unwilling to accept the offer.”

Some of the unpaid claims stem from decisions made under previous administrations, he said, though he did not assign blame.

Sutherland sought to give assurance that efforts are ongoing to resolve the issue.

“We have made payments to individual landowners over the last three years, but we need to do better,” he admitted. “This financial year, we have six or so million pounds allocated for acquisitions, and some of that money will go towards compensation. If we have to go back for a supplementary allocation, we will.”

Shedding more light on the delay and matters affecting it, Permanent Secretary Nikki Smith said the system for handling acquisitions has changed, making it harder to plan payouts.

He revealed that previously, the government agency requiring the land—such as the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW) for road projects—was responsible for funding acquisitions.

Now, the Ministry of Housing must request the money, often without advance notice of when roadworks will begin.

“If we don’t know beforehand when MTW is going to require land for roadworks, we can’t request the money at Estimates and have to try to do a supplemental,” Smith said.

In an attempt to avoid further delays, the ministry has restarted meetings with MTW to improve coordination and ensure landowners are paid and relocated promptly, the official said.

“We expect that with these meetings, we will work in sync to make sure that persons are paid, persons are relocated, and everyone—including the public purpose for which we are taking the land—is satisfied,” Smith said.

(SM)