Parliament yesterday started discussing the estimates for the Housing Authority, with Social Solidarity and the Family Minister Dolores Cristina speaking about the important role played by the authority and how the government is investing heavily to provide help to those in need of social housing.

However, Labour spokesman Karl Chircop insisted that the price of property in the private sector was having a negative effect on couples with an average income and these were unable to benefit from many of the schemes offered by the authority.

Opening the two-day discussion, Mrs Cristina said the government was allocating Lm12.4 million this year for social housing and this substantial amount catered for the needs of many clients who approached the housing authority and the department for social accommodation.

Mrs Cristina said that there have always been problems in this sector: couples found it difficult to find the necessary capital to purchase their own house and many people reaching pension age today were still paying off their loan.

She said expectations had changed over the past 30 years. People’s expectations were higher and this brought about new problems. Mrs Cristina said lifestyles had also changed with elderly people living longer in their residences before going to a home. She said there had been an increase in the number of single-parent families and this, in turn, created a demand for social housing. People with a disability were also becoming more independent and seeking their own house or apartment.

“All these factors put a heavy demand on the authority,” she said, adding that over Lm5 million will be spent by the authority to build new apartments or to buy existing properties.

“Everyone wants to have his or her own home. Successive governments have done their best to help people achieve this. We are achieving this,” the minister said.

Turning to the various schemes, she said the shared ownership scheme had been a success and it had helped couples who otherwise would not have been able to afford their own property alone.

She said Lm2 million is being allocated to the authority to help first-time buyers and the authority is working hard to come up with new schemes to alleviate problems in the sector.

The minister said the authority looked at properties in a holistic manner providing not only the buildings but also energy-saving devices, accessibility for the elderly and disabled, the installation of lifts, wells and even garages.

Mrs Cristina said the process to amalgamate the Housing Authority and the Department of Social Accommodation would continue at a fast pace and a lot of work had already been finalised. She said the authority now had one customer care section and the idea was to adopt the concept of a one-stop shop.

She said that amalgamation did not mean that all the employees had to be under one roof, but certain back-office work could be carried out elsewhere.

The opposition spokesman for social affairs, Dr Karl Chircop started off his speech by criticising the government for allowing the Social Affairs Committee to meet when Parliament was discussing an issue of social importance.

Turning to the Housing Authority, he said it was not the problem: instead, the actual problem was the enormous rise in the prices of property in the private sector. He said couples with an average income could not afford the prices that the Housing Authority was charging for its units.

Dr Chircop said that apart from the high cost, couples were also being given accommodation that was not finished to a decent standard. These two problems had to be addressed, he said, adding that although people were saving up to 25 per cent of the cost thanks to the Housing Authority, they had to pay the difference to arrange the defects. “In some cases, couples would be better off buying from the private sector in the first place,” he said.

Dr Chircop insisted that unit prices had to be subsidised much more, the quality had to be improved and the amount allocated to the Housing Authority by the government had to increase.

He said the price increases in the private sector were putting pressure on the Housing Authority and stressed the government needed to put more subsidised accommodation units on the market to stem the rise in prices.

Dr Chircop also warned that people who had money hidden away were now scared they would lose it when Malta switched to the euro and therefore they were investing that money in property and “this is pushing prices even higher”.

The debate continues this evening.