Updated | PN slams concealed rise of government apartment rent • Government criticises PN 'irony'

Nationalist MP Clyde Puli says that the government has placed more financial burdens on the most vulnerable people by increasing the rent of government apartments

The government has significantly increased the rent of government apartments, shadow social solidarity minister Clyde Puli said.

“The rent has doubled for some families, tripled for others, and quadrupled for others,” Puli said. “I know of someone who used to have to pay a €50 annual rent who is now faced with a €200 bill.”

Puli criticised the government for keeping the details of these new rent increases under wraps.

“These families only found out about that their rent had increased when they received their bills,” Puli said. “[Prime Minister] Joseph Muscat didn’t even hold a press conference to announce it, like he had when he decreased the cost of fuel by 2c.”

Puli said that around 15,000 families live in government apartments. These include pensioners, people on social benefits, disabled people and people earning a minimum wage.

“The government is placing new financial burdens on the most vulnerable people,” Puli said, citing a study from the Anti-Poverty Forum that showed that low rent buffers people living close to poverty from slipping into serious poverty problems. He also said that 6,000 more people had fallen into or at risk of poverty in the first year of the Labour government’s term, contrary to Labour’s pre-electoral promises.

“Despite facing a global economic crisis, the previous Nationalist government hadn’t raised the rent of government apartments in 2010,” Puli added. “Indeed, we allowed private owners to raise the rent and increased the subsidies granted to the vulnerable people living inside them.

“The government needs to balance its books, but it shouldn’t do so by burdening the most vulnerable people,” Puli said. “They have enough money to splash on salaries and promotions for people in their inner circle.” 

Meanwhile, Graziella Schembri, PN candidate for the next general election described the alleged 58c COLA rise as “a joke” for people living close to poverty. Despite the rise in rent of government apartments, she mentioned that MATSEC exam fees have increased, that petrol and diesel prices have not gone down despite global oil prices being at their lowest rate, and that the prices of bus tickets could increase under the incoming public transport operator.  

Government reaction

In a reaction, the ministry for the family and social solidarity said that it is ironic that the Nationalist Party is trying to give lessons about how to protect vulnerable families when in Opposition.  

“When the PN were in government, they increased water and electricity bills to their highest ever level in Malta and began taxing people who earn the minimum wage,” the government department said in a statement. “Also, Clyde Puli decided not to speak about recent Eurostat statistics that show how poverty in Malta increased from 20% to 24% between 2008 and 2013, the final five years under the previous administration.

“This means that in the past legislature alone, the number of people in risk of poverty had increased from 80,000 to 100,000 people during a period when the previous government was saying that poverty is just a perception.”