After a contentious debate on a bill to amend the National Housing Trust (NHT) Act to transfer $11.4 billion annually to the Consolidated Fund, the Government used its majority in Parliament to pass the proposed statute with 29 votes in favour, while the Opposition dissented with 24 objections. Ten lawmakers were absent.

While Finance and the Public Service Minister Fayval Williams sought to make a case for the extraction of $57 billion from the NHT over the next five years, Opposition Leader Mark Golding charged that the country was suffering from a chronic shortage of affordable housing.

Golding said the NHT must be "purposed and empowered" to meet that critical need.