The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has reiterated its concern for the country’s agricultural sector, after Government’s recent announcement of a new housing development at Vineyard, St Philip, which proposes the construction of approximately 1 100 homes on some 80 acres of prime agricultural land at a reported cost of $300 million.
This decision represents another significant setback for agriculture in Barbados and raises serious questions about the Government’s commitment to food security, the party’s spokesperson on agriculture, Amoy Gilding Bourne claimed in a statement issued yesterday.
Gilding Bourne noted that once fertile agricultural land was paved over, it was rarely, if ever, recovered. She said at a time when Barbados continued to grapple with a growing food import bill and increasing concerns about food resilience, the continued conversion of productive farmland to housing developments was both shortsighted and irresponsible.
She said Government’s latest proposal also comes against the backdrop of a troubling record of delayed, unfinished and failed housing projects that have already cost taxpayers millions of dollars, adding that Barbadians were still awaiting satisfactory explanations for the $60 million Hope Housing Project, the Chinese steel-framed housing development whose costs escalated to approximately $44 million, and the failed Pool, St John project.
“Before embarking on yet another large-scale housing project, Government owes the people of Barbados a full accounting of these unfinished developments, the expenditure incurred and the lessons learned. Equally troubling is the claim that the proposed Vineyard homes are intended for low-income Barbadians,” said Gilding-Bourne.
“Housing priced from $170 000 cannot realistically be described as affordable for many working families already burdened by rising inflation, stagnant wages, and an escalating cost of living. Such pricing places home ownership beyond the reach of many of the very people these projects are purportedly designed to assist,” she added.
The DLP official said the latest proposal raises legitimate concerns about whether the National Housing Corporation (NHC) was fulfilling its mandate to provide genuinely affordable housing and whether Government remained in touch with the economic realities confronting ordinary Barbadians. (BA/PR)
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