The Ministry of Housing and Urban Renewal has moved to acquire approximately 100 pieces of land for the construction of affordable homes.

Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal, the Hon. Keith Bell recently gave an update on the acquisition of land for housing. He said, “there are some individuals who have actually come forward as well, some owners, who have said they are also desirous of selling their property. And so we are working hand in hand with them. And these areas include Englerston, Bains and Grants Town, the area of Centreville, certainly in Fox Hill and of course in the Freetown area.”

The Minister assured that land owners will be fully compensated for their property. “The government cannot take anybody’s land, so let me make that abundantly clear, without properly compensation them with the fair market value for the property. And so the idea is to ensure that each piece of property is properly scoped, we get the survey plans and of course we work to ensure that everybody is properly compensated,” he said.

Bell also revealed that twenty families will receive conveyances to land after previously having title issues. He said, “there’s another four families who will be included they are just a little behind with those other four conveyances. My point is, again, in the Bain and Grants Town we have a lot of families who have been living on those properties for years. In Freetown we have a number of them, in Englerston and all of those over the hill, inner city communities persons have challenges in terms of trying to get the property papers turned over in their name. We have demonstrated that this administration has found part of the answer and of course you knew we just would have passed the Land Registration Bill and the Land Adjudication Bill and that ties directly into it.”

The families are expected to receive their conveyances on Tuesday.