Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou after the meeting with the Board of the Cyprus Land Development Corporation (CLDC)

 

26 April 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Within the framework of the campaign that AKEL is currently developing on housing policy, we had the pleasure today to have a meeting with the Board and management of the Cyprus Land Development Corporation. It is no coincidence that we requested a meeting with this organisation. The CLDC is an organisation which, by its very mission and foundation, is called upon to serve the objective of facilitating people’s access to housing, especially for the lower/middle classes, young couples and the vulnerable groups of the population.

Precisely because we consider this role as very important, which has a good and positive experience from the past, we are here to discuss proposals and ideas that we as a Party have elaborated in relation to how the Corporation can further contribute to this effort. This is of course after we have been briefed about the programmes the Corporation is advancing, as well as its plans.

In our view, the CLDC can, with the appropriate strengthening and expansion of its powers and responsibilities, become the Central Body for the implementation of a state housing policy that needs to be created in Cyprus.

At the same time, because a possible upgrading of the Corporation may take years, its activity must not be paralysed. It should continue and upgrade its work during this transitional period.

We have discussed all these issues and found that there is a broad consensus on how things can work so that the CLDC can expand and strengthen its services towards facilitating the acquisition of housing by those groups of the population that currently cannot acquire it.

We have agreed to be in contact with the leadership of the CLDC so that through dialogue we can facilitate and finalize the specific proposals that we have already announced through our campaign.

As always we stand by the CLDC because we believe in and support its mission and as I have said, we want to see this mission strengthened even more.

In AKEL’s understanding, a housing policy needs a single entity that plans, sets strategic goals, coordinates, takes decisions and works towards the planning and implementation of government policy. As of now we have an agency that has many years of experience. We consider that it makes a lot of sense that instead of seeking to create something from scratch, we should in fact upgrade the Corporation itself. That is precisely why we support with this approach the Corporation and its prospects.