MINISTER HAMILTON URGES EMPLOYEES IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR TO ACQUIRE QUALITY HOMES THROUGH NHC

Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 12, 2019 (SKNIS): Members of the Federal Cabinet visited the Manufacturing Sector in St. Kitts on February 11 to kick off several activities commemorating the Team Unity Administration Fourth Anniversary in Office. The government was elected to office on February 16.

The delegation who visited the manufacturing sites included the Prime Minister, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris; Deputy Prime Minister, Honourable Shawn Richards; Senior Minister and Minister of Labour, the Honourable Vance Amory; Minister of Tourism, Honourable Lindsay Grant; Minister of Human Settlement, Honourable Eugene Hamilton; Attorney General, the Honourable Vincent Byron; Senator the Honourable Wendy Phipps; Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Senator Akilah Byron-Nisbett, and Cabinet Secretary, Mrs. Josephine Huggins. Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Labour, Ron Dublin-Collins, Labour Commissioner Shernel James and Assistant Labour Commissioner Deon Webbe were also present at the walkthrough.

On their visit to Jaro Electronics, Minister of Human Settlement, the Honourable Eugene Hamilton, encouraged the employees to take advantage of the services offered by the National Housing Corporation (NHC) so they can acquire housing or purchase land, so they can have quality spaces for their families to live in.

“It is important for those of you on the industrial site to know how to obtain homes that I consider to be fit for a king.  Over the last three to four years, we have transformed the way that we do construction on homes,” said Minister Hamilton, while noting that the homes are now being constructed with bigger bedrooms and galvanize roofs to give persons a better-quality home.

He said that to accommodate persons whose incomes are not high, the Cabinet agreed to offer mortgages as low as 2 percent interest rates.

“Never before in the history of the country have we had that, so some of you who get homes will only pay 2% interest. You cannot get that anywhere in the world,” he said.

The minister said that his ministry in collaboration with NHC has also built social assistance housing for the indigent and infirm in various communities throughout St. Kitts. He said that these homes are offered free of cost to deserving persons.

He also mentioned that there is land available for purchase through NHC’s land sales office where persons can purchase land and have NHC build on that land.

“There are about 5000 applications at NHC for houses right now and we are working hard to make sure that as many as possible get the benefits of the government if not in this term certainly in our second one,” said Minister Hamilton.