Mascoll: DLP first to give tenants rights
Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Section And Page: 22A
Paper Date: Thu, Dec 14, 2000
EMPOWERMENT of tenants in rural tenantries began under the Democratic Labour Party with passage in 1965 of the Tenantries (Control and Development) Act which allowed them to live on and buy spots in those areas.
This was asserted yesterday in the Senate by chief Opposition spokesman, Senator Clyde Mascoll, who touted that legislation as the forerunner of the Tenantries Freehold Purchase Act passed by the Barbados Labour Party nearly two decades later.
Speaking during debate on a resolution to vest 14 983.2 square metres of land at Hamlet's Tenantry, Hindsbury Road, St. Michael, in the National Housing Corporation for sale to tenants, Mascoll said the Barbados Labour Party had created the impression that tenantries legislation was theirs.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment, Senator Tyrone Barker, intervened, however, to point out that the 1965 act only gave tenants security of tenure but did not allow them to buy the spots. Mascoll insisted that the legislation gave the tenants a sense of permanence, and had its genesis in the planned eviction of 24 tenants in the same Hindsbury Road.
He had some other concerns about Government's approach to the tenantries, pointing out, for example, that it was unfair for poor people wishing to gift land to their children to find themselves having to pay excessive taxation, including stamp duty, legal fees, VAT, and in particular, property transfer tax.
Independent Senator Velma Newton urged Government to alleviate the recurrent suffering of residents in Headley's Land from flooding, and to assist disadvantaged families in moving into homes constructed by the Ministry of Social Transformation, as they could not move in because they could not afford basic utilities. Acting Leader of Public Business, Senator Glyne Murray, said Government had not given up on Headley's Land, but was providing funds to acquire land so a larger culvert could be built to accommodate flood waters.