Barker calls on government to look into housing for public servants

As the government prepares to pass the 2025 budget, Paul Barker, Director of the Institute of National Affairs, has made several recommendations for the government to consider moving forward.

Mr. Barker says that the government, through the National Housing Corporation [NHC], must ensure funding is available for public servants to buy homes or provide institutional housing.

He said that among the government’s key priority areas, housing is very important for public servants as it will enhance productivity and efficiency in the workforce.

“So if you're [government] wanting to get a good public service, providing essential services, health, education, road and so on, you need your public servants to be motivated, to be productive.

“Other factors are needed to sort of be able to motivate staff, of course, include suitable housing, now you can't, the government can't afford to house all public servants, but they need to make sure that there are systems there to enable people to either be able to secure their own houses, to be able to buy their own houses,” Mr Barker said.

He said a proper home arrangement is vital for every public servant especially when they are relocated to other centers.

“So obviously if you're moving public servants around, you can't ask them to buy a house everywhere they go, so you have to be able to provide those essential workers who are being located in, so those are institutional houses but yet that has been a big problem over many years.

“Certain categories of workers include single young women, persons with disabilities, sometimes a variety of people, particularly in certain stages of their life, they need that accommodation, so if you don't, you can't expect them to be motivated,” he said.