New St. Kitts Homes Under Construction
Photo By Erasmus Williams
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
February 05, 2009 (CUOPM)
The recently established Land Distribution Committee has been successful in speeding up the government’s land distribution policy.
Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said the Special Land Distribution Initiative (SLDI) launched late 2007 has been given new life and nearly 300 acres of land has been committed to the programme.
He said as of January 2009, 285 acres have been committed to the Programme with 1,395 lots created under the SLDI. 500 lots have been offered for sale to SLDI applicants with 231 applicants completing their surveys and 130 SLDI making payments for land.
Prime Minister Douglas, who is also Minister of Sustainable Development said 14 acres have been allocated to Garvey’s Westlands Gardens Housing Development; 17 acres to Stonefort Caribbean View Housing Development; 19 acres to Mansion Housing Development; 31.5 acres to Park View Housing Development Extension in Molineux; 11 acres to Lodge Housing Development; 28 acres to the Cabbage Tree Housing Development Extension in Cayon and 41.61 acres to Stapleton Gardens Housing Development.
“I visited the site of the Stapleton Gardens Housing Development. This is a major housing development site with well over 300 lots available and together with these new sites that we have opened up over the last few months, we have close to 1,400 house lots that have been made available,” said Prime Minister Douglas at Wednesday’s Press Conference.
In 2007, 15 acres were allocated at Taylor’s East Housing Development; 11.5 acres at Shadwell East Housing Development; 30 acres at Shadwell West Housing Development; 11 acres at Buckleys Park Housing Development; 20 acres at Verchilds Housing Development Extension; 10 acres at Farms Housing Development in Sandy Point; 13 acres at Willets Gardens Housing Development, St. Paul’s; 9.5 acres at Park View Housing Development Extension in Molineux and 3.5 acres at the Cabbage Tree Housing Development Extension in Cayon.
The Special Land Distribution Initiative was created to promote the personal empowerment and economic advancement of our nationals, through land ownership specifically.
“Although it was well publicised that this programme had been specifically designed to provide land to those who had never owned land, the announcement of the programme resulted in a flood of applications, many of them from persons who had already acquired land and who in fact had homes via one government programme or another,” said Prime Minister Douglas.
He said that to address the problem, the ministry was forced to develop a much more rigorous screening system and all of this added time to the process.
“I am pleased to say, however, that the new screening process is now in place and the programme is fully operational,” Prime Minister Douglas said.
The Land Distribution Committee is a multi-agency committee that brings membership from the various ministries and departments. Central to this committee are the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, the Director of Land and Surveys, the Minister of Sustainable Development and the Prime Minister.