HC Deb 29 July 1953 vol 518 cc161-2W
90. Mrs. White

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the proposed programme for the development of African housing in Kenya; and on what principles the new housing loan will be allocated.

Mr. Lyttelton

Both Government and the local authorities have their own separate housing schemes. In addition to 900 quarters completed in 1952, Government plans to build 2,310 quarters for a cost of £800,000 to house all its African employees throughout the Colony. Provided funds can be made available the bulk of these should be completed by 1956.

Nairobi City Council has a capital programme of £2 million from 1953–57 which will provide houses for 25,000 people and serviced plots for employers' and owners' building. Details of the programme are as follow:

  1. (i) Houses to be built for rent, for 10,000 persons; 6,500 of these will occupy accommodation in which work has already started.
  2. (ii) Houses for rent to employers for 2,500 persons. Housing for 300 of these will have begun by the end of this year.
  3. (iii) Permanent owner-built housing; 100 serviced plots available.
  4. (iv) Sub-standard buildings to be erected by Africans for themselves; 500 serviced plots available.
  5. (v) Employer-built housing serviced by the Council; 80 acres.

Mombasa has a capital programme from 1953–57 of £250,000, to provide housing for 3,000 or 4,000 people. Buildings under way are: (i) Staff housing for 300 persons; and (ii) Changamwe Estate, where 136 acres for tenant purchase and owner-built housing are being developed.

Nakuru with a programme from 1953–57 of £300,400, intends to build housing for 5,000 people. Houses for rent for 1,000 people are already being constructed.

Eldoret has a programme of £85,700 over the same period, which should house about 1,500 people. Houses for rent for 152 families are under construction.

Kisumu plan to build houses for 400 at a cost of £20,000; at Kitale semipermanent accommodation for 1,600 persons will be built at a cost of £35,000.

Further surveys of the requirements at each centre, and particularly at Nairobi and Mombasa, are being carried out. The Kenya Government attach great importance to an early solution of the African housing problem and the Deputy-Governor is taking over the general direction of the whole programme.

To supplement these schemes the Kenya Government are negotiating a loan of £2 million from the Colonial Development Corporation to finance direct Government buildings of African housing under the aegis of the new Central Housing Board, and to lend money to Africans to build their own houses and to employers to build houses for their African labour.

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