The opposition is continually changing tune according to the audience and circumstances, where the environment and development are concerned, the parliamentary secretariat for tourism and environment said.

It was referring to a Labour Party statement which bemoaned a decline in development applications. This statement contradicted other statements by the opposition, such as on the White Paper on the rent laws reform, in which the Labour Party complained that there were too many vacant buildings in Malta, and in which it criticised the government for releasing land for development when there was such a stock of vacant properties. Now the Labour Party is criticising the government because, it says, Mepa fees are a disincentive to those who want to build, the secretariat said.

The Labour Party should be clear and say whether it is for or against more building.

The opposition also criticised the higher Mepa fees when in 1996 Labour in government had said the time had come for Mepa fees to rise. But the number of applications with Mepa is on the decline for various reasons, including screening which eliminated applications before they were listed. The property market, both local and foreign, was going through a difficult patch as well, leading to banks adopting a more difficult stance to development project loans.

And, the secretariat added, because of government measures in Mepa’s reform, the number of pending applications had declined from 4,300 in 2010 to 2,700 in 2011.