38 RENT CONTROL IN KUMASI, GHANA

# E. The Political Economy of Rent Control

Successive governments in Ghana have been engaged in building housing for rent, and recently for sale, but few have been particularly assiduous.

Most development plans have admitted governments' inactivity and their reliance on the private market to provide the majority of new houses. In the light of this, efforts have been made to assist the building of private housing. These have involved providing infrastructure and financial assistance to private builders to facilitate and regulate their activities. At the same time, rent controls have been negatively affecting the profitability of private investment in housing.

From the beginning of the colonial period, regulations we_e imposed on plot sizes, building coverage, and sanitary provision, to ensure a high standard of house building, (H. M. Government, 1909; Belfield, 1912) and plots were leased to the major local chiefs and private individuals. As Kumasi grew, new areas were laid out as grids with plots over 400 sq.m. in area, 13m wide roads and sanitary lanes. Old areas were rebuilt where required to make them "a credit to the town" (H. M. Government, 1921). In 1936, a new plot size (860 sq.m.) was introduced as standard and the sanitary lane was discontinued. In 1939, new building regulations were framed tightening up on design and use of materials (The Kumasi Public Health Board Regulations, 1939).

It has continued to be government policy to provide services for housing development through the statutory supply corporations: Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation (GWSC) for water supply and sanitation, Kumasi City Council for drainage and the emptying of bucket latrines, and the Electricity Supply Corporation (ESC). The policy has only been successful in parts. Gt.SC has been required to break even financially even though government has fixed its charging rates. Kumasi City Council has been underfunded especially for the importation of vehicles and spare parts. Thus it is hardly surprising that the 1986 survey shows 50% of houses without water and 29% without a toilet of any kind in 1986. Electricity is almost universal in Kumasi except in the outlying villages.

Finance has been considered an important housing generator by successive governments. But financial institutions like the First Ghana Building Society (set up in 1956) and the Bank for Housing and Construction (1973) make limited loans and mainly to the relatively secure and well- off rather than to low income households. Other financial institutions have been encouraged to invest some of their capital holdings in housing. The State Insurance Corporation and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust have been involved in giving mortgages or direct investment in housing but their need to make a safe profit has removed their activities from the reach of low income households unless subsidi by their employers.

Government employees, in both civilian and military service, have been eligible for concessionary loans for house building, particularly since the Public Servants' Housing Loans Scheme Decree, 1975. While this is undoubtedly a boost for the ,-ecipients, who often receive quite low wages, anomalies have been all too common. For example, a university lecturer could raise a loan from