Auditor General’s report adds urgency to housing debate: PPM weighs in

The main opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPM/Progressives) has added its voice to the growing debate over Cayman’s public housing policy following a critical report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG).

The comprehensive 110-page report, dated August 2026, by Auditor General Patrick Smith covers the six years from 2019 to 2024, focusing on seven public bodies in assessing the government’s approach to improving access to affordable housing across that period. Considering Cayman’s changing economic and social dynamics across that period, it made a series of recommendations to resolve persistent issues while acknowledging where shortcomings persist.

In a press release, the PPM/Progressives party said the report should mark a turning point in holding government accountable for housing delivery, after identifying serious weaknesses in performance, value for money, and accountability.

PPM WEIGHS IN

Opposition leader Joseph Hew acknowledged that the report covers successive administrations and said the former PPM Government must accept its share of responsibility for shortcomings before May 2021.

“We should not attempt to rewrite history. Housing delivery was not where it needed to be before 2021, and the Auditor General has identified weaknesses that existed during the PPM administration as well,” Mr Hew said. “The final period of our government also coincided with the extraordinary disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country’s priorities necessarily shifted towards protecting lives, preserving employment and keeping the economy functioning. That is relevant context, but it does not excuse every weakness identified by the Auditor General.”

However, the PPM/Progressives leader also stated that accepting responsibility for the past cannot obscure responsibility for what has happened since May 2021. “The present minister has now held responsibility for housing for more than five years. At some point, an inherited problem becomes your responsibility to solve. Five years later, government cannot continue behaving as though May 2021 was yesterday,” he insisted.

The opposition party said it welcomed the Public and Affordable Housing Policy and 10-Year Strategic Plan, approved in December 2025, but noted that the Auditor General found continuing weaknesses, including inadequate performance measures.

However, it noted that although the OAG recommended that the Government develop an implementation plan and begin implementing the strategy “as soon as possible,” the ministry(of housing) indicated that the plan is not expected to be presented to the minister for approval until the end of 2027.

“Caymanians cannot live in a strategy document. They cannot raise their children in a committee meeting. And they cannot wait indefinitely for another implementation plan,” Opposition Leader Hew said.

He also committed his party to supporting “serious reforms” arising from the Auditor General’s recommendations while holding government accountable for delivering them.

“This should not become another political argument about who first created the problem. Successive governments have shortcomings to answer for, including ours. But the present government has now had more than five years with the housing portfolio. It has had the authority. It has had significant public resources. It has known about the demand. Now Caymanians are entitled to ask: Where are the homes?”

For its part, the ruling National Coalition For Caymanians(NCFC) government has welcomed the OAG’s public housing status report and has pointed out the steps it’s taking to address and resolve the longstanding issue.

Hon. Deputy Governor(DG) Gloria McField-Nixon stated: “The Auditor General’s report rightly recognises that Cayman is not alone in facing housing affordability pressures. Governments around the world are grappling with similar challenges, which is why the development of a comprehensive Public and Affordable Housing Policy and 10-Year Strategic Plan was such an important step in establishing a clear framework for reform and implementation. We recognise that more remains to be done.”

ONE REPORT, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

As the debate surrounding the government’s public housing policy now intensifies, certain specifics are being highlighted from the OAG’s detailed review. The main opposition PPM/Progressives has pointed to this aspect: “The auditor general found that Government spent $36.4 million on the affordable housing initiative between 2019 and 2024, including more than $35.2 million in construction costs. By the end of 2024, only 36 new homes had been delivered, with another 50 under construction. More than $35 million in construction expenditure, but only 36 homes delivered by the end of the audit period…The report described programme performance as “inconsistent and largely inadequate relative to the scale of housing needs”, citing long waiting lists, slow project completion and insufficient delivery.” 

It also referred to the National Housing Development Trust’s waiting list, which stood at 1,045 applicants at the end of 2024, had grown to 1,194 applicants by February 2026, with an average waiting time of 3.6 years, with some Caymanians waiting almost 10 years.

At the same time, the NCFC government has made this observation from the report, which draws attention to ongoing steps being taken to address the matter.

“The Auditor General’s report recognises that in 2025, the government issued its housing policy and 10-year plan, which represent a significant step forward in addressing those challenges within the Cayman Islands. The audit recognised the extensive stakeholder engagement that informed the government’s housing strategy, which included consultation with more than 1,000 residents and 120 key stakeholders, the strongest evidence base to date for understanding housing demand and identifying practical solutions to improve affordability. The report also noted that implementation of the housing policy has already begun in several areas and recommends that the government continues to implement the framework.”

HISTORICAL DEBATE

Our own Caymanian Times archives show the historical debate. The matter was discussed in a 2024 edition of the then podcast Cayman Conversation between publisher Ralph Lewis and Eric Bush, Chief Officer in the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing, Infrastructure, Transport & Development. Mr Bush had said then that Cayman’s housing crisis was really an economic crisis. He cited an example of shared space in London as helping to allay the costs of home ownership, such as insurance, electricity and maintenance.

“If it’s a multi-unit development, all of these costs are shared. You start to get the economies of scale of insurance, of cooling, of the building itself. This crunch/crisis is more of an economic crisis because it is talking about the actual affordability and attainability of the housing. In this way, Cayman may well have to embrace higher buildings to accommodate home ownership on any scale. This was inevitably the natural solution,” he said then.

Meanwhile, Mr Bush, who retains the Chief Officer position in the Ministry of Planning, Lands, Agriculture, Housing & Infrastructure, said the current steps being taken by the government are moving in the right direction while also stressing the importance of private sector ‘buy-in’.

“The 10-Year Plan gives us a clear framework for coordinating that work, strengthening accountability and measuring progress. Government has a significant responsibility in addressing Cayman’s housing needs, and we cannot achieve the scale of change required through government action alone. The private sector has an equally important role to play, particularly in increasing housing supply and expanding opportunities for Caymanians to own or rent homes they can afford,” Mr Bush stated in response to the OAG’s report.