Gov’t should facilitate first-time land owners to build their homes

Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly (HoA) Neville ‘Sheep’ Smith said the government should help first-time Belonger landowners with the construction of homes.

Smith was giving his contribution to the motion moved by Premier Andrew Fahie to amend the Stamp Duty Tax Act in the HoA earlier today.

The Deputy Speaker said while the government is already assisting Belongers to purchase land with its four per cent tax waiver, some persons still cannot build on the land for several reasons.

“One of the things when it comes to government land — once people acquire government land — is that some sort of road infrastructure or water and power needs to be put in place that these people can have access to do these things,” Smith said.

“Maybe there could be a way you could charge it in the land tax so we could get it bit by bit. We don’t have to get it all. Because sometimes when a young person is going to build a house and they are alone in that area, a transformer alone, they can’t afford to pay for a transformer,” the Deputy Speaker added.

Smith, who is also a Territorial At-large representative, said there are many young persons who use their money to purchase land and because of poor public infrastructure, they are unable to reach that land.

“They can’t get power to that land; they can’t get water to that land. That in itself puts them in a predicament where they have to sit down and wait and then you know what might happen? They might lose that same piece of land because they can’t get to build on it,” he reiterated.