KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) says it is not in favour of a suggestion made by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute to reduce contributions to the National Housing Trust (NHT).

A news release issued Wednesday from the JCC said that the demand for housing is great and undersupplied and that a reduction in the level of contributions cannot be the answer.

“In our opinion the mandate of the Trust needs to be revisited and revamped to allow the institution to better satisfy this need. The criteria for qualification for benefits need to be looked at, the objective being to expand the number of contributors qualifying for benefits,” JCC President Warren McDonald said.

McDonald said in the past, not enough private sector developers took up the challenge of providing low-income housing even with NHT financing.

“The JCC is therefore not in favour of the NHT removing itself from the construction sector of the market. The private sector is guided by the profit motive and is therefore likely to increase margins and as a result house prices. Competition will not reduce margins to below what is thought to be reasonable,” he argued.

The JCC president said in reviewing the policy guidelines of the NHT, risk and viability must always be born in mind.

“We must be careful not to fall into the freeness mentality trap. Care must be taken to ensure that bad debts do not overwhelm the Trust. Housing units should be provided by both private and public entities with a widening of the benefits to accommodate the poorer contributors,” said McDonald.

“Even after this recommended revamping of the mandate of the NHT some contributors hopefully a minority will, because of their income, not qualify for a benefit from the NHT. These low-income earners are usually the ones who are without an adequate source of income after retirement. As recommended previously, the JCC is suggesting that the contributions of those who do not qualify for an NHT benefit be transferred to their NIS accounts so as to provide them with a source of income on reaching retirement age.”