The Nationalist Party is hoping that the rent reform announced by the government last Saturday is not an exercise to gain votes.

Spokesperson for Social and Affordable Accommodation Ivan Bartolo and candidate for the First District Darren Carabott said today they were disappointed in the reform to the pre-1995 rent presented by PM’s Robert Abela, saying that the PL wanted to play on people’s emotions.

According to the National Statistics Office, 40% of Maltese who live in rented property are currently facing financial challenges, Bartolo said. In addition, 1,900 people are currently on a housing list waiting to be given property by the Housing Authority.

In the past eight years of the PL’s governance, Bartolo said, the party could have invested more wisely to address issues related to renting of property.

“When the projected expenditure is a million euro in the first year, three million euro in the second year and five million euro in the third year, just imagine how many people could have been helped if the price of corruption wasn’t being paid; if €40,000,000 weren’t being put every year into SOCAR’s pocket”, Bartolo said.

Carabott said that while the intentions of the rent reforms are good, they will result in a discrimination appearing between those with pre-1995 rent and those who wish to start renting now.

There is a problem of discrimination between those who are affected by the old form of renting property, as well as those who have only just started to rent theirs, as the government is going to give a maximum of €10,000 to those who have been renting prior to 1995, while those who started to rent property after 1995 will get nothing, he said.

Carabott also said that the rent reform should not be used as a political manoeuvre for the PL to gain more votes, but rather they should be viewed as a basic human right to property which every individual is entitled to.

PN has no credibility to talk about such subjects - Labour Party

In a reactive statement, the Labour Party said that the PN is the only entity which had nothing but criticism to the proposed reforms.

The party said that while the government is open to all suggestions, the PN is only interested in breaking down that which it did not manage to do in the many years it was leading the country.

In fact, the party said, the biggest problem the PN has is its lack of credibility when it comes to talking about such subjects, which is even born out of a lack of proposed alternatives or ideas for the future.

The party said that the government is implementing the biggest social housing project in the country while also addressing challenges in the sector which had been waiting for solutions for years, and that is what it will be doing with the pre-1995 rent reform.