The majority of those who approach me to give me their take on how to help ease Malta’s housing problems come up with two main lines of argument. The Greens, using that term very loosely (as in not necessarily active AD members but all those who wish Malta’s very limited greenery well) talk about the need for rent law reform, and those who veer more to the left, both ideologically as well as voting wise, talk of private public partnerships.

Perhaps not enough people understand what is meant by these two policies in reality, how limited their impact has been to date and how the need is for more State investment in housing, which ultimately means from taxation, unpalatable though that is to Malta and Gozo’s coping and non-coping classes. Basically people have come to expect massive State investment in health, education and social services, but have started assuming housing can fall from the sky, aka the private sector, without paying for it.

First of all that misnomer of private public partnerships.

This is difficult to achieve in housing or any form of subsidised housing, and particularly so in our culture where a level of greed and profiteering has set in that demands quick bucks overnight, an unnatural state that cannot last forever however robust our housing market is. We are also in a very different situation to that which used to prevail in residential care for example, as we already use the private sector to build all our projects and follow a tender process that favours the cheapest, a policy which doesn’t always leave the desired results as those contractors who work on the low bid and then hit it with variations, tend to profit at the expense of the more genuine contractors who give a more realistic price. Projects are then delayed by inevitable haggling, costs rise anyway, and a raft of procedures to try and get the most value for money deal falls by the wayside.

I also have the impression that some people think anyone who owns anything privately is going to give it away to government without putting up an enormous fight. This is 21st century Malta and Gozo, not post-war Malta, or newly independent Malta intimidated by the belts of Dom Mintoff. Let’s not forget how many were forced to do this in the past, whether it meant having their properties requisitioned or having to sell their land for a pittance. Perhaps governments did that in the past because there was no other way to finance decent housing for all? Nobody would dream of doing it today though, as in this vast property owning democracy of ours, nobody will be elected if they touch private property. The inheritance tax has already angered many, though it will only affect a few at a time, as people lose their relatives and have to give government a huge whack of that which has already been taxed throughout their relative’s lifetime.

I also think that people think government is getting good offers of PPP’s, in terms of housing provision and turning them down. The reality is much cruder, and something I tried to explain in my “Ramla is all our embryos” article. The only real proposals I have had in almost 10 years chairing the Housing Authority has been from a variety of people who want their land to come into a development zone. Some are just outside. Some are part of Malta’s small yet pristinely beautiful countryside. Basically, landowners will give government some units in exchange for government putting their land inside the development zone. That is the Maltese private public sector partnership, at least to date. Those are the only offers we are receiving from the private sector for partnerships, if you can even call them that.

Not really worth considering is it, when we have so much land to develop within the scheme, when we have so very many unused buildings, when we can’t even repair and maintain the properties that are already existent? It may of course be that the current glut of properties in certain areas will force some property owners to sell their properties to government, and a scheme does now exist to allow us to do it, but so far the offers have been very few and far between. These offers are usually overpriced and are made by owners who can’t shift their property on the open market, and who hope against hope that government, using all of our taxes is going to subsidise them.

It is not going to happen. It would be far more sensible for MEPA to devise a system of planning gain where developers would have to give something back in exchange for permits within scheme. It could be on another piece of land, it could be on another site, but sooner or later a clean and fair system of planning gain will have to be considered if we want to have a range of affordable housing produced by the private sector. We know the alternative. Hundreds if not thousands who cannot buy at current rates. Tens of thousands of properties left empty. The rest as they say is housing history.

Rent reform though needed, will not bring more properties on the market. It is needed, especially getting rid of the right of inheritance, as an issue of social justice. It may bring more housing on the market but a reality that all blues, reds and greens should acknowledge is that a huge chunk can’t afford to buy or rent at market rents or market prices. Our wages do not match our housing costs and this is causing great inequalities and great suffering, make no mistake. So somewhere, as they say, something’s gotta give and I suspect that after all the fiery talk and politicking, and after we have left this election mode far behind, political parties are going to have to grow up and realise the housing party is over.

The private sector can’t supply affordable housing without massive State investment and subsidy. We can always do more to encourage, but essentially far more government investment in housing, call it social, affordable, shared ownership or whatever, is going to have to come. The queues of people who are thrown out of their tenancies every spring to make way for more lucrative summer lets demand it.

The many thousands who work for wages that can’t sustain a loan demand it. People are beginning to very quietly demand it. Those who never bought and cannot afford to pay private lets once they retire demand it. The call is not loud yet. It may not be very clear but astute politicians will read the signs of the times and act on them.

Gordon Brown in the UK has put housing as his topmost priority. We need to do the same, we need to invest massively now to prevent a whole generation being left out of the decent housing equation, while of course simultaneously ensuring that this pathetic you’re better off not working culture that is prevalent is killed off once and for all.

And the less politics comes into this housing reality the better!

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