As the debate of the Throne Speech kicked off yesterday, took the opportunity to tell members of the House of Assembly that rent increases for seniors on a ?case by case basis?.

When he accused others of ?politicising? the issue, however, ? who has been vocal on the issue on behalf of his constituents living at Purvis Park ? accused him of being ?out of order?, and was himself nearly ordered to leave the house by

Mr. Barritt and his colleaguehave been up in arms since BHT chairperson Ronald Simmons announced two weeks ago that rents were increasing at the four BHT properties ? in some cases, by more than 100 percent.

Rents have not been increased at three of the four properties since 1997, and soaring maintenance costs have left the BHT with no other choice, the organisation has said.

Mr. Simmons said from the beginning that the BHT would be examining rents on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the means of the tenant and the rent they are currently paying.

During a Ministerial statement yesterday, Mr. DeVent reiterated that statement.

?The reviews for rent increases had not occurred for some time, but they have to be reviewed as a matter of course,? he said.

?I had also indicated that the reviews would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. This statement has been misreported and/or taken out of context by others.

?Comments by individuals who are ill-informed have not helped the process and my statement today, now further clarifies the matter. Reviews on the proposed rent increases for the seniors? residences under the control of the BHT will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis ... As with the proposed rent increases, our seniors will be dealt with in an honourable and respectful manner.?

Government will appoint a Junior Minister of Housing who will be answerable to the Housing Minister, also announced yesterday.

No further details were offered.

Meanwhile, revealed that Government will be taking a ?multi-pronged approach? to solving the housing crisis.

And some aspects of the Bermuda Land Development Company, the West End Development Corporation, and the Bermuda Housing Corporation could be combined, he said.

?Firstly, we will provide emergency housing as a first means of accommodation to those in need,? he told members of the House of Assembly yesterday morning.

The Bermuda Housing Corporation will take charge of this function, he said.

Secondly, Government will implement ?intermediate accommodation whereby individuals can move from, or graduate from, emergency housing to intermediate accommodation,? he said.

For many of those suffering from the housing crisis, he said, a large problem was their inability to budget. ?Clients of the BHC ... will continue to be given instruction and/or training courses to better assist them in moving from emergency accommodation to intermediate accommodation.

?It has to be appreciated that there are some individuals who may refuse outright to abide by rules or guidelines, and this will be the greatest challenge.?

Individuals will be monitored to ensure they are ready to move up to ?the next tier? ? permanent housing, he said.

As for manufactured or modular homes, Mr. DeVent said a local contractor has stated it is capable of supplying concrete panels for use in the construction of modular homes.

The contractor, he said, will be put in touch with developer Bermuda Homes for People. ?This may very well become part of our building product for permanent homes.?

Since the release of the Throne Speech, Mr. DeVent said his Ministry has been approached by two companies ?who have indicated their intent and ability to construct affordable housing units in Bermuda.

?I will report on this at a later date once those proposals have been fully evaluated.

?With respect to manufactured housing, I would note that we have looked at construction facilities in the US and Canada. We are going to use some of these units in our intermediate and possibly permanent housing unit accommodations.?

Regarding the combining of WEDCO, the BHC, and the BLDC, Mr. DeVent said Lt. Col. David Burch?s appointment as chairman of WEDCO and deputy chairman of the BHC could shed some light.

?I look forward to his comments in due course on the possibility of amalgamating the housing aspects under WEDCO?s control with the housing aspects of the BHC,? he said. ?A similar review will be done with the BLDC.?

Work is being done, he said. ?As I have said before, it is not just a Government problem, but the Island?s problem, and therefore this solution has to be the Island?s solution.?

Mr. DeVent denounced the UBP?s Reply as ?the new UBP with the same dry drivel?. He listed a number of housing schemes in the works, insisting that there was a plan to address the affordable housing crisis.

And Mr. DeVent said over 230 houses will come on line by early 2007. The Bermuda Housing Corporation had succeeded in reducing the amount of rental arrears from over $1 million in January last year to $276,000 in September, while the mortgage arrears were down from $543,000 to $99,640. ?I look forward to seeing greater and better things from the Bermuda Housing Corporation,? he said. The Minister told his colleagues that he had come to realize that there are a number of people who are ?not educated to the level they need to be at? and had trouble functioning in society successfully.

?We?ll continue to work with these people because they are the type of people the social agenda is meant to address.?

He said the UBP had failed to address social ills during their 30 years in power, and neglected to properly maintain housing complexes. And he said that many of the people left behind were young blacks who knew that they had been neglected by the UBP government.

The Opposition party was like a man trying to woo his wife back after years of abuse, he continued. ?Thirty years of abuse, 30 years of mistreatment, 30 years of denying my children the opportunities that should have been afforded them and now you want to get back in my life? No way.?

The people would not reinstall people who ?failed to treat them right and who failed to carry out their mandate to make sure they looked after everyone in this country?.

The UBP had been forced to carry out social policies in the 60s and 70s because of pressure from a strong Opposition party and social unrest, he added. And criticism of his plans to import manufacture homes were unfounded because the UBP had brought in manufactured homes too.

?When we produce manufactured homes we?ll maintain them. They won?t be allowed to fall apart. They won?t be allowed to not be painted for far too long,? he said.

Mr. DeVent lambasted the UBP on its decision to tackle race relations. He reminded the House that former Premier Sir John Swan had announced that black men were a problem and then nothing was done.

The Opposition?s pointed out that the Minister?s plans for houses would still leave a shortage of houses for some 160 families if the numbers of people on BHC?s urgent and emergency lists were taken into account. He claimed that Government had used up a $56 million surplus left them by the former UBP Government, and had nothing to show for it. And he wondered whether the PLP was abandoning its old social agenda or acknowledging that it never had one.

Mr. Burgess said that a social conscience, conviction and commitment were all needed for a Social Agenda. And he said former PLP Leader the late Frederick Wade would have been ?turning over in his grave when the Throne Speech was read out?.

?It?s safe to say that the PLP since 1998 lost its way and instead of coming clean and saying not only have we misled you about who your leader is, we also misled you that you would be taken care of first,? he said.

The Government?s agenda was woefully short on law and order initiatives, he said, and the two parties clearly differed on the issue. ?If you think the crime we face today is only chipping away at the fabric of society then that?s where we differ ? it?s wiping it out.?

Mr. Burgess called on Government to adopt anti-corruption legislation, and said a Whistleblowers? Act and a witness protection act would be top priorities of a UBP Government. Tackling crime would also need a policy on informants and a section within the Youth and Sport Ministry which would take on the problem of gang violence.

The section would be connected to health and social services, education and other departments. Mr. Burgess said that the Alternatives to Incarceration program could not be working and crime could not be going down, because the prisons are full. A UBP Government will provide funds for temporary court to help remove the case backlog, he said.

Turning to community policing, he said, ?the more we live in fear, the less community we have. If you want the community to get involved you simply have to protect them.?

And law and order programmes must begin in the schools with zero tolerance regimes tackling fighting in school uniforms and at the bus stop.

?We?ve got to empower teachers, empower principles and empower parents,? Mr. Burgess said. ?The absence of law and good order is the absence of any Social Agenda.?

He said while the UBP agreed that the National Drug Commission did not work as well as hoped, ?I don?t know that the answer is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.?

He continued: ?If a government is to be judged on how well it takes care of its seniors and its young this government has failed.?

Responding to Opposition criticism that it had taken six years to get on with a Social Agenda, ruling party backbencher said that the social agenda started with the inception of the PLP in 1963.

?It was a misnomer to say we are now pushing our Social Agenda,? he said. ?We should have said we are accelerating the Social Agenda.?

PLP led constitutional reforms reached to the ?core of how this society is set up,? he said. Mr. Perinchief added that lack of access to money had prevented black people from being successful. He said he agreed with the view expressed in the Reply that race was not just a black people?s issue.

?But I?m one who advocates that there can be no forgiveness without repentance. And the people who perpetrated injustice in this country will have to repent? Reparations come to mind,? he said. He reminded the House that many black families lost their property in Tuckers Town in a scheme to jumpstart the tourism industry.

?I just want to bring tangible examples to this House. I?m tired of rhetoric,? he said.

The ProActive contract to build the new senior secondary school failed partly because of the company?s difficulties in securing credit from the established institutions, he continued. Yet the Bermuda Industrial Union was ?lambasted? when it was revealed that its credit union had lent the company money for the project. ?Why would no lending institution in this country lend them money? Not only were they let down but this government was slapped in the face.?

And when the ?magnanimous? government granted the Bank of Bermuda exemption from foreign ownership restrictions, the people of Bermuda got ?the shaft?.

?Almost every construction firm in this country ? none of them black ? refused to work with ProActive and, or overbid for their services,? Mr. Perinchief said. ?When we start talking about race relations, empowerment, and small businesses, these are the issues that need to be addressed.?

He denounced as ?ludicrous? the UBP?s proposals to introduce a Whistleblowers Act. ?I happen to know that certain civil servants are running to the Opposition and letting out secrets, letting out details of a criminal investigation that is sub-judice. We are sliding down a slippery slope when we start giving civil servants the right to talk about official secrets.?

On housing Mr. Perinchief suggested ?forward looking legislation?, a moratorium on foreign ownership of new houses and a cap on rents for high priced homes.

Shadow Minister for Seniors called Government the ?scrooge Government of the day? after they imposed rent hikes for seniors.

She added that rents have doubled or tripled for some seniors.

?If someone doubled your rent and your income stayed the same what would you do?? she asked.

She referred to Government as ?cold? and ?uncaring? when it came to seniors and pointed out that Government has only given seniors 14 days notice before their rent increases.

She said that Government?s new initiatives, outlined in this year?s Throne Speech, said that they plan to send teams to monitor nursing homes.

?I thought you?ve been doing this all these years,? she said.

She added that there is a need for a senior ombudsman. asked what was accomplished by the UBP when it come to seniors.

?We have put time frames on getting things done,? she said.

The National Monitoring System is moving forward with a deadline of March, 2005, she added.pointed out that in 1998 the PLP were talking about advancing a social agenda, and six years later, are talking about the same thing.

?If this agenda were advanced six years ago we would not be having this conversation,? he said.

?Almost a third of the population is poor.?

?People not only struggle to survive but they struggle to find somewhere to live,? he said.

He added that health care issues were not addressed in the Throne Speech.

He said that the speech missed one major component ? and that is the component of sport.

?The speech should speak to the advancement of sport,? he said. praised the Premier for the speech and asked the Government to provide a commission of inquiry into the stop list and to make a list of everyone that is on it and address the US about it.

He said the list needs to be revised because people have been on it for 30 years and the US do not accept certificates of rehabilitation from Bermuda. He felt that was unfair. said she was pleased to see the Child Abuse Regulations in the Throne Speech.

These regulations establish a child abuse offender register.

However, Ms Roberts-Holshouser said that the register was already implemented in 1998.

?I would like to know where the list is and how many are on it,? she said.

?We need to know where the register is and I suggest a review and upgrade of it ? our children deserve it,? she said.Ms Holshouser called for a review of the law and pointed out that the penalties for disclosing a name on the child abuse registry is greater than that of the child abuser. started his contribution by saying that all the PLP?s programmes were based on principles set by its founding fathers.

And he said Bermuda owed much to the PLP?s founding fathers. ?We would not have seen much of the social legislation that has taken place in this country,? he said. ?What we are doing is continuing along that road.?

The UBP had integrated the schools, introduced free and compulsory education, government-sponsored health insurance, old age pensions and other initiatives only because the PLP had pushed vigourously for them, he continued. ?It has been the PLP that has provided the vision, the force for a Bermuda that is equitable where there is equality for all the people of this country,? he said.

?It?s that underpinning that has driven our country to a place where it is today.? Mr. Horton reminded the House of the predictions of disaster if the PLP took power and said that the PLP had made some significant strides in the Social Agenda already with initiatives such as the Long Term Residents and the Employment Act.

?For the first time in this country people who are non-unionised workers ? who the employers used to bully to do exactly what they were told to do, it was a kind of slavery,? now have to be paid overtime if they worked more than 40 hours in one week.

?Employers object vigourously, as does the UBP. They object to people getting paid overtime past 40 hours.?said that the PLP lifted some of their Throne Speech proposals directly from the UBP?s proposals. He agreed that the PLP?s founders should get the credit for many of the social advances, but said that the current regime was arrogant and had for six years presided over corruption and ?questionable ethical behaviour?.

Mr. Furbert said the PLP should have few excuses because it knew what it had to do when it took power in 1998. Its platform had said it would be unjust to link government housing rent to market forces, yet the rents for the houses at Anchorage Road were being raised to market rates. ?We have a Government that has a history of failing to keep its promises,? he said. Mr. Furbert added that the average price of a house was now $1 million, up from $540,000 when the PLP took power in 1998, a situation which could have been avoided if the government had added to the housing stock.

And he cited census figures which show that 60 percent of the Island?s seniors are poor or near poor and represented the largest group of ?have nots?.