Committee to address land, housing issues

A NATIONAL housing and urbanisation committee has been formed to address land and affordable housing issues.
Driven by the National Housing Cooperation (NHC) and the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC), it involves government departments and private sector stakeholders who will come up with a national programme on affordable housing.
The committee will also review existing housing and land policies.
CIMC executive officer Wallis Yakam said the recent eviction of people from a privately-owned piece of land at Morata, Port Moresby made it important to form a committee addressing such issues, led by the NHC.
She also queried what became of the National Urbanisation Policy (2010-2030) yet to be implemented, and the review of the national housing policy in 2017.
Department of Lands and Physical Planning secretary Benjamin Samson said: “Urbanisation should be looked at holistically. Also, the Government should look into (developing) rural centres (to stop the) urban drift.”
While he admits that more should have been done by his department in the Morata case, he thanks the CIMC for bringing important stakeholders together to address these issues.
Institute of National Affairs executive director Paul Barker said PNG was the “least urbanised country in the world”.
He wants to see proper processes applied to fix the problem, starting with reviewing and implementing the policy.