The Nationalist Party is putting 10,000 families at risk with its recent rent law proposal, Minister for social accommodation Roderick Galdes said.

Galdes said that the PN's proposal for pre-1995 leases will affect 10,000 families, and not in a good way.

The PN had proposed that, if elected, people who qualify for subsidies for pre 1 June 1995 rents, as long as they do not earn more than €40,000 a year, will retain the current state-aid, but it would be tapered over a three year period so that the tenants can adjust to the new leases.

The government had, in 2021, presented legal amendments to amend the pre-1995 rent law which allowed tenants to pay a very small amount of rent that did not reflect the value of the property. With such amendments, the government was to pay the difference between rent paid by tenants and the amount that reflects the true value of the property to the landlord.

Galdes said that the PN's proposal places a bomb on the heads of thousand of family and that the PN has no credibility when it comes to this subject.

He said that it was a PN government that in 2009, did a half-baked job in terms of reforms to amend the pre- 1995 rent laws, effectively making rents between €200 and €230 a year for homes worth thousands.

Galdes explained that the multiple court sentences given by the European courts of Human rights together with those given by local courts made such a law obsolete.

He added that with the historic reform of 2021 amending such laws, a labour government has satisfied its three aims. The first one was to increase rent to a maximum of 2% of the property's value; the second was to give maximum protection to people living on social benefits and the elderly who pass the means test, and the last one being to cover part of the rent due, allowing present tenants to continue paying the old rents.

Galdes said that this proposal would mean that an elderly person with a pension of €6,000 a year, having a rent of €9,000 a year would have to somehow start paying the full amount after three years.

He said that currently there are many cases where tenants have had their rents arranged to reflect this new law. This means that there will be court procedures to follow such arranged rents closely, as the government has already made a commitment to protect those in need.

He added that the PN had no position during the implementation of the government's legal amendments in 2021.

Parliamentary secretary for EU funds Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said that PN leader Bernard Grech is the face of the PN's past and that this is becoming more clear with the kind of proposals the party is making.

He said that with the 2021 reform, the PL had not only addressed an anomaly in the rent laws, but has also given up to €10,000 in compensation to landlords.

He added that the PN's proposals are the result of a divided party, and that the PN is clearly not ready to govern the country.

Zrinzo Azzopardi said that, although the opposition has been saying that they are ready to govern the country for the past 5 years, "they have changed their electoral manifesto almost four times in the past few days."