The waiting list for free government housing has shrunk thanks to successful social reforms, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday.
Speaking during a brief interview on the Labour Party’s ONE Radio, Abela said that there are some 1,900 people waiting to be assigned social accommodation.
The number is around 42% smaller than the 3,300 people who were waiting for a free roof over their heads five years ago.
“We have registered significant success here and that is because of the government’s policy of investing in people and social services. We don’t want people to be dependant on government hand-outs but to be able to pick themselves up,” he said.
The figures were first announced by Housing Minister Roderick Galdes on Saturday.
This dip in housing dependency, Abela said, could also be seen through the number of new applicants for social housing. Whereas around 600 people would apply for social housing annually a few years ago, today that figure has dropped to 240 applicants.
Abela said this was thanks in no small part to reforms in the rental market to protect against predatory pricing, as well as incentives to help people become home owners.
Fitch rating encouraging
The Labour leader dedicated much of his Sunday talking points to news that rating agency Fitch has reaffirmed Malta’s A+ bill of health.
He said the results were encouraging and showed that Malta needed to continue down the path of updating plans and reforming outdated policies.
The past decade, Abela said, had been about closing the gap between Malta and EU average when it came to GDP and employment.
But the economy was just a tool to be used to improve the people's quality of life.
Looking back at a conference on the state of the nation organised by President George Vella on Friday, Abela said he was taken aback at how negative his political opponent had been.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech, the prime minister said, had painted a bleak picture of the state of the country, but this did not tally with international ratings experts’ view.
Grech had not even celebrated the hard work of healthcare workers throughout the pandemic, one of the defining achievements of the past few months.
“He was just negative about everything,” Abela said.
PN not credible on Ħondoq pledge
Abela also weighed in on the Nationalist Party’s electoral pledge to purchase to buy land at Ħondoq in Gozo and turn it into a national park.
On Saturday, the PN said that if elected it would immediately begin negotiations to purchase Ħondoq ir-Rummien in Qala and prevent it from being developed by speculators.
Abela on Sunday, however, said the PN had not even looked into how much the project would cost.
The only reason the green area was facing the threat of large construction projects, he said, was because the PN had changed planning rules back in 2006.
Abela said one of the people advising Grech on the environment today, had actually been involved in the controversial 2006 local plans.
“The PN makes promises it can’t deliver on. I think the people know who can be trusted to deliver and who cannot,” Abela said.