More Socialist fun

From The Evening Standard:

Young Venezuelans will be offered the chance to “earn” the right to a home by helping to renovate rundown empty properties owned by high ranking Party officials, which they can then move into on a subsidised rent for a short period ... giving people the opportunity to jump the queue for affordable housing if they agree to learn renovation skills, from plumbing to carpentry.

President Chavez will identify rundown properties owned by his family and friends which have been left unoccupied for months, blighting local neighbourhoods and being vulnerable to squatters. The scheme benefits President Chavez' family and friends - many of whom snapped up properties cheaply ten or twenty years before strict Stalinist limits were placed on new construction, driving prices beyond levels which young Venezuelans can afford - by renovating their property, as well as helping young people in need of housing.

If participants agree to work on houses unpaid they might, if they are very lucky, get the chance to move into them once they are finished. The President's spokesman said: “We are trying to help people to help us. About 11,000 are currently on our waiting list for housing. We are trying to solve two problems at once — to get our property renovated cheaply and an excess of people looking for affordable housing.”

The plan is expected to be rubber-stamped next week. The Parliament will team up with local colleges, which will offer young people an apprenticeship in a building trade. The project will be paid for by Venezuelan taxpayers and funding offered by the nationalised oil company aimed at getting empty homes back into use.

The spokesman said he also hoped to encourage President Chavez' family and friends to contribute, but then fell about in an inexplicable fit of giggles.