Afra Raymond is interviewed by Hema Ramkissoon on CNC3’s ‘Morning Brew’ on Monday 10th September 2018 to discuss the recently-announced La Brea Dry Dock project with China Harbour Engineering Company. Perspectives on T&T-China relations and government-to-government contracts are given. Also touches on Curepe Interchange project.
Programme Date: 10 September 2018
Programme length: 00:16:32
“…Whereas the People of Trinidad and Tobago—…(b) respect the principles of social justice and therefore believe that the operation of the economic system should result in the material resources of the community being so distributed as to subserve the common good…”
—From the preamble of our Republic’s current Constitution (1976)
In this, my Season of Reflection, I return to my constant concern with our national housing polices and the outcomes of the State’s housing program for our neediest citizens. The quality of discourse and understanding is in my view rooted in the quality of the questions one poses. How we define the problem allows us to improve our chances of seeing and solving.
The inescapable challenge for our national housing program is to provide sufficient affordable housing options of a decent quality. The HDC’s waiting-list is now in excess of 176,000 individual applicants, which excludes co-applicants or dependents. Over 90% of those applicants cannot afford a mortgage or to ever buy their own homes. They are just too poor to do so.
So this is the big question which our Housing program must answer.
How do we house those who can least afford good-quality housing? Continue reading “Property Matters – The Housing Gap”
Afra Raymond, based on his research on the effectiveness and delivery metrics of the existing housing policy, was interviewed on the Power 102.1FM ‘Business Corner‘ by Sandrine Rattan on Housing Policy and outcomes.
Programme Date: 20th August 2018
Programme Length: 00:12:48
This article provides more details of the games being played in this Information War. It seems that the concealment of the details of the CL Financial bailout is of high importance.
First item is this acknowledgment from the PS in the Ministry of Finance which would be funny, if this entire matter were not so very serious –
Continue reading “CL Financial bailout – filling the gaps, part two”
This is the full CTV interview with Dionne Baptiste on the national housing policy and programme on 1st May 2018. Video courtesy CTV
Programme Date: 1 May 2018
Programme length: 00:41:35
Josanne Leonard interviewed Afra Raymond on Monday 12th June 2017 on how the three parts of the state work against the backdrop of constitutional issues such as the separation of powers, the quality of representation and the size, origin and role of the Cabinet. Video courtesy Office of the Parliament
Programme Date: 22 May 2018
Programme Length: 00:21:37
Apart from the strong objections to the re-introduction of property tax, there are tantalising points emerging on the need for those taxes to be used to pay for local government services. Local government is one of the sectors which is in most frequent contact with the needs of communities, such as maintenance of drains and playing-fields; garbage collection; road repairs and many other such services.
One of the common positions on this tax is one in which there is no real objection to property tax as such, but there are local government and property valuation concerns expressed. Most of those persons seem to have a strong preference for the property tax to be used to fund their local government services, which then leads to an objection to the valuation approach. Those persons seem to hold the view that the extent to which one property is more valuable than another ought not to be the basis for setting the property taxes, if those properties are using broadly similar levels of local services. One can understand that this approach would appeal to those who own the more valuable properties, but one can equally say that those who own more modest properties would be displeased if their property tax bills were the same as their neighbours with larger and more valuable properties. It is complicated. Continue reading “Property Matters – more Property Tax FAQs part three”
Hema Ramkissoon on CNC3’s The Morning Brew spoke with Chartered Surveyor Afra Raymond about the Property Tax. Mr Raymond said the Tax is not a new tax. Video courtesy CNC3
Programme Date: 29 May 2018
Programme Length: 00:17:38
The recent series of comments on this Property Tax have prompted my return to this controversial issue. Some of those comments were;
The proposed Property Tax has three main differences from the old system which ended in 2009 –
Property owners have had an unprecedented tax holiday, with no property tax paid since 2009. At a minimum, using the lower 2009 revenues, $1.287 Billion more remained with our property-owners.
I will touch on three of the most common objections – Continue reading “Property Matters – more Property Tax FAQs”
The previous column detailed the ways in which this HDC project was being pursued in breach of existing land and housing policy. In this article I will go further, to specify the HDC’s statutory responsibilities, which it is legally bound to discharge. I will also examine the potential for a judicial review of the prospective decision to approve this project.
In addition to the land-use policy points made last week, the HDC is a statutory agency of the State, created by the HDC Act 2005. The HDC’s functions and duties are specified at S.13 (1) –
“…13. (1) Subject to this Act, it shall be the function and duty of the Corporation to—
(a) do all things necessary and convenient for or in connection with the provision of affordable shelter and associated community facilities for low- and middle-income persons…”
The law lists the low-income persons ahead of the middle income persons, which would conventionally denote a priority. The first item in a list taking precedence over the second and so on, but that is straight-line thinking and that is not where we are. Not at all.
HDC’s official responses to my queries stated that less than 22% of the 13,484 new homes allocated between 2003 and 2015 were given for rent. That is a scandalous misallocation of Public Money, given that 95% of the waiting-list comprises persons who cannot afford to buy a home, even on the most generous terms.
Last week, the PM announced plans for a $9 Billion investment in 10,000 new homes to be built in the coming months. That is a virtually unattainable target. Just remember that the original target in the 2002 housing policy was for 100,000 new homes in a decade, but in the 13-year period 2003-2015 only 11,788 new homes were completed. Yes, that’s right, the numbers do not match. HDC allocated 1,696 more homes than were completed in that period, but that is for another article. Continue reading “Property Matters – St Augustine Nurseries part two”
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