By Peta-Gay Hodges
KINGSTON, Jamaica, (JIS) – Significant developments in St Thomas are expected to fuel a housing boom across the parish, according to prime minister, Andrew Holness, addressing citizens of Highbury Crescent in Morant Bay on May 15, during a handover ceremony for a unit awarded to New Social Housing Programme (NSHP) beneficiary, Carline Williams.
“This parish literally is on the frontier of new development, and one area in which there is going to be significant development in St Thomas is in the area of housing,” prime minister Holness emphasised. Large-scale housing development cannot be undertaken without adequate infrastructure, noting that work completed in the parish, so far, will open doors for further growth.
“It is the water mains that we have laid, it is the sewer in certain sections…. the new road infrastructure; it is the conduit for internet and other sensors that we will be putting in. It is a complete infrastructure that makes other kinds of activity possible,” he maintained.
Prime minister Holness highlighted the “many acres” of unutilised or underutilised lands across St Thomas which, he noted, “you could not develop… because you didn’t have proper road infrastructure, water infrastructure, electricity”. “Now [that] all of that is in place, you’re going to see an explosion of housing in St. Thomas, because housing depends on infrastructure [and] it also depends on location. Because St Thomas is in proximity to Kingston, you’re going to see the development that would have overcrowded Kingston slowly find its way into St. Thomas. So, the parish is set for great economic growth and development,” the prime minister reiterated.
St Thomas is on the cutting edge of development, citing the roads, water supply systems and the newly opened Morant Bay Urban Centre as the catalysts that will drive this.
The prime minister visited the parish for the Centre’s official opening and the handover of keys to four units under the New Social Housing Programme.
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