Agency to fast-track housing...

A government agency that aims to fast track housing delivery will be up and running by June, the Minister for Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu, said yesterday.

Sisulu said the go-ahead for the Housing Development Agency was passed by parliament’s housing portfolio committee. It will be the facilitator between the national department of housing and banks for annual housing delivery.

The department plans to increase delivery from 270,000 units to 500,000 annually, to house an estimated 2.3 million impoverished people awaiting shelter. It is estimated that the effort will cost the department R345-billion by 2014.

The agency’s main tasks will be to develop, manage and co-ordinate the development of housing .

The plan is to minimise red tape in the approval of developments by both the government and the private sector. It has been known to take as long as three years before developers can lay the first brick.

Sisulu said the agency was a critical element in meeting the 2014 deadline of a slum-free South Africa — and it would not be deterred by Eskom’s threats to halt the electrification of Breaking New Ground houses. She said the argument to halt electrification of the government houses to aid power supply constraints was unrealistic.

“We cannot avoid the growth brought by urbanisation. I have written to both (Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga) to clarify to us how housing delivery would be affected. “It is pure logic that housing must be provided. We have also informed Eskom that we are willing to participate in energy- saving education efforts.”

- The Times