Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Finance Minister slams ‘dodgy’ housing figures

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has questioned figures showing that 1.9 million houses have been built since 1994 and whether these included the thousands still standing empty because of poor workmanship.

Asking what constituted a house, Manuel said: “I truly don’t believe that the numbers add up here.” He questioned whether the thousands of houses standing empty because of poor workmanship were included in the Provincial Government and Expenditure Review figures for the 2002/03 to 2008/09 financial years.

The report showed that 1,930,783 houses had been built or were under construction.

“I think the people here have the right to know. It does not put us at the top of the popularity contest but I think that people have the right to know and we must try and deal with these issues,” he said.

The report showed that while spending had more than doubled from R4 billion in 2002/03 to R8.7bn in 2008/09, there had been a “significant” decline in housing delivery. It cited poor planning and project management, unpredictable lead times and rezoning and environmental impact assessment processes as challenges. - Cape Times

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