Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today announced a new social housing project that will see 500 new units constructed.

The 500 new units, Muscat said, will be added onto the same 22 sites announced last February, which include Paola, Kirkop, Rabat, Zabbar, Mellieha, Luqa, Zurrieq, Zebbug, Qormi, Siggiewi, Qrendi, and Marsascala. These 22 sites were planned to house 500 social housing units, as announced last February, however with this latest announcement, this will double to 1,000 units.

The units will not take up ODZ land and will adhere to planning policies, he stressed, as well as upholding living standards.

The increase in unit numbers on these sites, he said, is due to better planning. Muscat said that it is a question of optimisation. He said they looked at the profiles of the people who applied for social housing to help with this. He said there are many single divorced women, for example, arguing that it is pointless giving these people a three-bedroom apartment. He also said that in the past, with flats, a garage would be given, but living space is a priority, adding that instead of garages parking spaces are enough instead. These, together with further optimisation methods through market research, helped result in exponentially increasing the number of units.

In total, the National Social Development Fund (NSDF) (which has funds from the IIP programme) will contribute €10 million to this 500 unit addition, which brings the Fund’s total contribution to this project up to €60 million.

Muscat described this investment as the largest in social housing in two generations, adding that in total, this government is working on 1,725 social housing units.

The Prime Minister reiterated that new social housing units will not have the same rules as past social housing projects, explaining that such units will not be inherited, for example, instead leaving this units for people from future generations who will be in need.

Muscat also said that the new rent reform regulations will soon be published, but stressed that the government will not be taking a heavy-handed approach.

Muscat was asked by The Malta Independent about the construction situation on the island, given the weakness of the Building Regulations Office and construction complaints, and what the government will do in the immediate future to deal with this and minimise the impact on residents from construction. He said that work is ongoing to have a certificate for responsible contractors, which will be done through a voluntary programme where those using responsible practices will receive a certificate. One example would be for the contractors who apply to tie themselves to work only at certain times in certain zones not to inconvenience residents, he said.

Muscat said that the work to create the new construction authority is underway. He said there are discussions ongoing on how certain responsibilities could potentially lead to self regulation. “Self-regulation for me means having more regulations for professionals to actuate.” He said that professionals are calling to create self-regulation.

Asked about land reclamation, Muscat said that it is a question of priorities. “If both sides voted in favour of the tunnel, while there is technology to build a tube, when you dig you create construction waste. We can either throw these in quarries,” but said that this will result in overfilling quarries.  He said that the Opposition is also calling for an underground, which will result ever more construction waste than the Gozo tunnel. 

Decisions now need to be taken, he said, that either the spoilt ground, throwing the waste outside of Maltese waters, or when talking about different projects whether we should use it for land reclamation.  He said that the government is not considering land reclamation that will see skyscrapers constructed on it. He said land reclamation projects already happened in the past, such as the Freeport. He said that reclaimed land could be used to create promenades and other projects. As for where such projects can take place, he said that the government is waiting for the ERA to release their report.

Asked about a news story that Mark Gaffarena, the subject of the property scandal, is developing a block of apartments on a site in Sliema which he was ordered to return to the government by the court, he said he does not have any details.  He said that he did not have the details at this time.