As a result of electoral opportunism and political cowardice, mistakes that have been made over the past 60 years have still not been rectified, Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party (AD) chairman Harry Vassallo said yesterday.

Speaking during a media briefing on AD’s rent reform campaign, Dr Vassallo said it is shameful that the government has still not changed the situation with regard to the increasing number of vacant properties and the sky-high property prices.

He pointed out that according to information AD obtained from estate agents, between 80 and 90 per cent of the properties on their books are over-priced.

Dr Vassallo said the current rent laws create economic imbalance and clear social injustice, since some people still pay rent at pre-war rates.

According to AD’s studies, 17,000 such properties are occupied by people who do not need social assistance, while others who really need help, have to turn to the government for assistance.

Moreover, the national census conducted over the past 50 years has shown that the proportion of vacant property has continued to rise; to date, around 25 per cent of all properties in Malta and Gozo are vacant, he said, adding that if a basic remedy is found to increase supply over demand, people should be able to buy decently-priced property.

The first step proposed by AD is the removal of rent laws, which would be replaced by a new law that would be just and convenient for everyone.

AD is proposing a series of incentives and disincentives to make full use of the country’s resources rationally.

“We have proposed a number of legal measures to make it worthwhile for people to sell their property,” he stated.

Edward Fenech, AD’s spokesperson for economy and finance pointed out that “what we would like to create is a straightforward market by shifting power in the right direction. We want people to have a clear choice when it comes to buying, building or renting their property”.

Dr Vassallo said the two main political parties do not seem to want to do anything about this problem.

“Instead”, he said, “we have recently witnessed the Nationalist government’s folly in a completely opposite direction with the extension of the development zones”.

Although the government can carry out a reform in the rent laws without calling for a referendum, it appears that nothing is happening in this regard, Dr Vassallo said.

Minister for Family and Social Solidarity Dolores Cristina has repeatedly failed to finalise the promised White Paper on the rent reform within the deadlines she set herself, he stated.

Nonetheless, AD’s rent reform campaign is ongoing, and the party has been collecting signatures to call a referendum that would preferably coincide with the next election, Dr Vassallo said.

By law, the number of signatures needed for a referendum to take place is 10 per cent of all those listed in the electoral register – around 30,000 signatures.

To this effect, AD has updated its methods by reorganising the signatures collected so far and a door-to-door campaign was initiated in September.

Since then, the rate of collection of signatures has increased tenfold since people have a number of questions, which they feel more comfortable asking face-to-face, Dr Vassallo added.

Although he stopped short of giving the exact number of signatures collected so far, Dr Vassallo said the new methods being used are producing very encouraging results.

He also expressed his concern over the fact that the government has, to date, failed to publish the data of the census taken in November 2005.

“It is the government’s moral obligation to publish the results for the satisfaction of the citizens who provided the information,” he insisted.

AD is organising a public meeting on 28 October to update people on the various developments that have taken place during the course of the rent reform campaign.