Housing ministry ‘under strain’ as MPs press for faster delivery

Barbados’ housing crisis came under sharp scrutiny in Parliament on Tuesday, as government MPs questioned whether the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance is equipped to meet the growing demand for affordable homes under this year’s Estimates.

As the House Estimates of the government’s appropriations for the 2026-2027 fiscal year continued on Tuesday, lawmakers scrutinised the ministry’s capacity to house thousands of people.

Leader of Government Business Santia Bradshaw moved the debate beyond routine constituency-level concerns, focusing instead on whether the current budgetary allocation is sufficient to support the massive infrastructure and administrative workload now confronting the nation.

The St Michael South East MP argued that the demands placed on the ministry have outpaced its resources, creating a bottleneck that affects thousands of citizens waiting for housing. Bradshaw, acknowledging persistent operational challenges within the National Housing Corporation (NHC), insisted that the issues were structural rather than merely local.

She said: “I think that these estimates also speak to a bigger issue of whether with the level of development that we’ve seen across the country, the constant piling up of additional work on the National Housing Corporation and the wider Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, whether these estimates truly reflect a ministry that has the adequate resources to be able to carry out the works that the 2026 Barbados is now requiring.”

Bradshaw also questioned whether the ministry is equipped to handle the legal logjam involving property titles, which often prevents the government from repurposing or rebuilding existing houses.

“Does it mean that we don’t look at perhaps having a situation where there is funding perhaps to allow title to be sorted out so that you at NHC certainly are in a position to be able to better get those houses back on the market?” she asked.

Housing minister Chris Gibbs admitted that the department faces a “significant issue” regarding staffing levels. He pointed to an ageing workforce and the imminent retirement of key experts as a major hurdle.

“It may be a good and bad problem for me in that I could get the people some work, but at the same time, we are at risk of losing the institutional knowledge that is required for the complexities of this ministry,” Gibbs said.

To mitigate these losses, the government is increasingly shifting towards outsourcing engineering and legal services for conveyancing. He added that the administration is pursuing joint ventures to accelerate development. Addressing the broader talent gap, the minister indicated a strategic move towards overseas recruitment.

“We have to look to our partners in Africa and in the CARICOM so that where we have deficits in skills in certain areas that we can beef up those shortages as well,” the minister said.

Permanent Secretary Niki Smith underscored the difficulties of internal operations, noting that while the Ministry is digitising to improve long-term efficiency, the current transition is labour-intensive.

He highlighted that the department frequently loses staff to other ministries and struggles to secure replacements, compounding the existing backlog. Despite these constraints, the Minister emphasised a commitment to improving workplace wellness and overall productivity to maximise the impact of the current workforce.

He acknowledged that until the resource gap — both human and financial — is adequately addressed, the goal of resolving the backlog of more than 4 000 housing applications will remain a significant uphill battle.