PESHAWAR, May 7: The NWFP government has yet to introduce a housing policy to meet the growing needs of housing in Peshawar and other major towns of the province.

Officials said that there is a major gap between housing needs and current building performance, which required efficient response from both public and private sectors to meet shortage of housing in future.

Official statistics indicate that the number of persons per housing unit have risen over the years and according to the 1998 household census, number of persons per single household is 8.5 whereas the number of rooms per housing unit is 2.6.

Rapid population growth, haphazard urbanization and additional burden of the Afghan refugees have resulted in deterioration of living condition of people, which has also increased room occupancy rate in Peshawar.

In other urban centres of the province including Abbottabad, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Mansehra and Mingora people are facing housing problems.

In Peshawar it is hard to find rented houses with desired facilities, who pay high rents due to shortage of housing units.

According to an official report, majority of the population in Peshawar live in houses that can not meet national standards.

The report said: “If current trends in construction continue, there will be a serious deterioration of living conditions and will lead to an ever-widening gap between low income families and the urban elite”.

Despite growing demand and worsening condition, the government gives an inadequate response to the housing problem, while on the other hand private sector do not react due to difficulties in land purchase and limited institutional support.

Unlike other major cities of the country, lack of space and construction of residential flats had further aggravated the problem.

The government has established housing department about nine months ago to prepare housing policy and develop land for the construction of residential colonies in district headquarters of the province.

Under the plan there will be a provincial housing authority which will formulate guidelines for the housing department.

“The new department has two basic functions, housing for all and housing for government employees”, he said.

The newly-established department has been functioning without secretary, technical staff and required funds have not been allocated to initiate activities, according to the official.

Sources said that the housing department had been tasked to design new housing policy which would be implemented across the province.

According to the plan, the government would allocate about 800 kanal of land for the construction of accommodation blocks in all the 24 districts of the province.