A construction boom fuelled by Government projects is making it far too expensive for many ordinary Bermudians to build their own homes, the United Bermuda Party said yesterday.

There is such a shortage of builders because of Government projects such as the Berkeley School that remaining contractors are charging inflated prices, said UBP Cultural Affairs spokesman Cole Simons.

Not only were housebuilders being charged more for labour, they were getting a poorer quality of work because less qualified people were the only ones left in many instances to work on homes.

Mr. Simons said his research had showed the cost of building a house in Bermuda had skyrocketed in recent years - by 70 percent in the last year alone for a two bedroom cottage - because there were so few builders left who were not working on Government projects.

Government should heed the warning of the Chamber of Commerce that it should stagger some of its construction to even out the peaks and troughs in the building industry, he said.

He said the cost of building a two bedroom cottage in Warwick had jumped from $450,000 in 2001 to $535,000 this year. In 1966, it would have cost $60,000, 1991 it was $275,000, and in 1998 it was $304,000.

The cost per square foot to build in the last few years had also exploded, he said. In 1975, the cost per square foot was $37. By 1990 it was $135, 1995 $150, 2000 $200, 2001 $225, and 2002 $262. The cost of materials had been relatively steady, but the spiralling costs were due to the scarcity of labourers because of the number of Government contracts, he said. “How can a young couple afford that today? In the last two years the price has increased by 70 percent, and that is totally unacceptable,” said Mr. Simon.

“The Government must and needs to do something to curb this exponential growth. It's just not on. If Government doesn't take more steps more people will be without a home. These people who want to start their own home are finding it difficult to find contractors. Government is absorbing around 60 to 70 percent of the contractors in the community. They (contractors) are quite happy getting the job done and they don't want the small man's business. Contractors can now charge a premium to do work if they are now doing homes.”

Government needed to keep a control on the wages being paid to labourers by not offering big sums to contractors, which in turn pumps up the cost of construction across the Island, he said. “Between two thirds and three quarters of human resources in contracting is working for Government and their projects and we need to ensure that Government must balance this so that there is an equitable distribution of labour in Bermuda and so no one is punished so Government must deliver its capital projects.”

He said Government needed to set minimum standards for construction work so home owners didn't get ripped by sub-standard builders.

Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Erwin Adderley said the shortage in labourers was resulting in less qualified people working on homes.

“We now have plumbers' helpers masquerading as plumbers and labourers are now small contractors,” he said.

“The man in the street can't afford to pay contractors who are on large contracts, so he is left to pay almost the same price for less qualified people.

“He is still paying $262 a square foot for construction, but he is not getting qualified people to do the work.”

Mr. Adderley said the extra $5 million Government was spending on the Berkeley project in the name of “empowerment” of Bermudians, was “raising the bar” in construction costs throughout the Island.

Former Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) president and PLP Whip Ottiwell Simmons said for years Governments had been looking at minimum standards for tradesmen, and the National Training Board is discussing it “all the time”, but it was extremely hard to get standards to which everyone would agree. If people had complaints about the standards of work, they should go to Consumer Affairs. He said the current heat in the construction industry partly came from projects ordered or allowed while the UBP was in power, including Berkeley, and the building of the XL and Ace offices on the site of the old Bermudiana Hotel.

“It is the nature of a buoyant, dynamic economy and it is to our credit that these things are moving. Not the prices, but at least people are able to make a decent living in construction, particularly the working classes,” he said.

“Government is quite conscious of the heat in the economy and any controls we can put on construction work which we can, we will, but we must not hold up work that will put people out of employment.” BIU president and PLP MP Derrick Burgess said it was wrong to blame workers for the high costs of labour as some employers were still paying wage levels the union negotiated ten years ago. “Workers are just trying to keep pace with the cost of living. It's survival,” he said.

“No one criticises what the banks are charging, what the lawyers charge, its always labour. Don't blame the workers all the time.”

The 42 percent gap between black and white whites in Bermuda shown in 1993 was still expanding today, he said, when workers were trying to close the divide.

Opposition leader Dr Grant Gibbons said: “All we are saying... is that Government, who has more control over their own projects, should try to phase it (construction).” He said skyrocketing costs of construction of two bedroom cottages will create a shortage, have a damaging effect on the economy and make home ownership less affordable.

And referring to the probe into the Bermuda Housing Corporation, he said that Housing Minister Nelson Bascome “who is responsible for affordable housing” had allowed “ridiculous waste” to occur “under his own nose”.

Premier Jennifer Smith said the Government had done an “admirable job” in implementing its platform. “Even its harshest critics can poinPrt to the fact that we have completed 75 percent of what we have in our platform,” she said.