Labour MEP Alfred Sant has criticised a construction policy he said had led to "ruined countryside and ugly, soulless town and village centres".

Writing on Facebook on Saturday, the former Prime Minister said he had once advocated for a construction policy that would eschew new buildings outside towns and villages and instead focus on improvements in urban centres and degraded land in their periphery. 

Today, he said, even such a distinction seemed no longer to make sense.

"What has happened is that while construction outside existing urban centres has continued at a rapid rate, towns and village centres have also been subject to extensive works," Sant said. 

"But instead of this work leading to improvements in traditional buildings, old houses were demolished in favour of tall apartment buildings that are leading to the loss of all character in our towns."

This is not the first time the MEP has criticised the approach to construction in Malta. 

He was a vocal critic of Infrastructure Malta plans for a flyover in Mrieħel, which he said would lead to the destruction of agricultural land in one of the most fertile parts of the island. 

In an interview with Times of Malta last month, he said restraining the construction industry was a long-overdue measure and that people were increasingly realising that "cowboys" could no longer be allowed to run the show.

"We shouldn’t just restrict construction, but we should say we’re going to have real regulation and real prohibitions," Sant said.

"If it’s ODZ then you can’t do anything. If we’re discussing a flyover for traffic, no – penalise traffic, rather than have a flyover. "