The prime minister’s mantra for the past two years has been to promote continuity. He has now adopted a new mantra: stability and sustainability.
It does not take an expert in political linguistics to conclude that these terms essentially mean the same thing: more of the same of the government’s economic strategies.
This is not good news for those hoping for radical reform in the property development and construction industries that have done so much harm to the country’s environment and urban fabric over the last few decades.
In its 2023 Budget proposals, the Chamber of Commerce has made some valid suggestions about how the government could switch off the autopilot steering of policies in property development and take some positive action to reform the Planning Authority.
One of these suggestions relates to the introduction of a points system run by the PA that would require development applications to be assessed on several environmentally-friendly criteria and be awarded points accordingly. Only those applications that obtained a minimum pass mark would be processed further.
The chamber argues that the PA should “steer away from the piecemeal speculative market of pencil developments and promote qualitative, larger scale lifestyle development addressed in a holistic urban context”.
The chamber’s recommendations are detailed enough for the government to consider practical ways to promote sustainability in the construction and property development sectors.
The chamber’s proposals for better waste management processes, both at the industry and domestic levels, are innovative, environmentally-friendly and doable if only there is the political will to change the way the PA works.
The reliance on increased investment in construction at a time when it should be evident to most people that land overdevelopment is causing irreversible harm to the urban and rural environment is a dangerous, high-risk strategy. This overdevelopment trend can only change when the necessary reforms, possibly including those proposed by the chamber, are taken on board.
Public opinion surveys indicate that at least half of those interviewed believe bribery and abuse of power for personal gain are widespread among officials issuing building permits. Tragically, many people seem to think that there is not much that can be done to tackle corruption in all its forms, not least in the issuing of building permits.
The changing of the guard at the Planning Authority, when a new official replaced former CEO Johann Buttigieg, has not yet led to any significant change in the way the regulator functions. Overdevelopment remains rampant and not much different from the time of Buttigieg, when 24,000 planning applications were approved under his stewardship.
The Financial Crime Investigations Department within the police force should intensify its investigations into suspected corruption by major property speculators and closely scrutinise the processes by which the PA grants permits.
The data stored in the electronic equipment of suspected criminals could well show how public authorities have been abusing their power. The government needs to be shaken out of its complacency.
At a time of substantial economic crises confronting European Union economies, the government should not assume that Malta’s economy will ride the storm by sticking to its high-risk and often speculative economic strategies that have boosted growth for the last few years.
It would do well, for instance, to restart the elusive reforms in the Planning Authority which, with the nod of its political masters, has been behind the irreversible damage caused to the local urban and rural environment of the last two decades.