[WATCH] Minister brushes off PN's criticism on unchanged social housing prices

Social policy minister Michael Farrugia has brushed off criticism by the Nationalist Party on the government’s delay in reversing hiks in social housing rent prices.

Paula Mifsud Bonnici. Photo by James Bianchi/MediaToday

Shadow social policy minister Paula Mifsud Bonnici told a press conference this afternoon that the government is trying to deceive social housing tenants, who are still receiving the higher bills despite the government’s pledge to reverse the increases in its 2017 Budget.

“The situation in this country has become alarming. There is a growing disparity between those people with their noses in the trough and those who are struggling to cope with everyday costs.”

The government in 2014 increased social housing rents from €185 to €203 per year, a decision that social solidarity minister Michael Farrugia has blamed on a law introduced by the previous PN administrtion that had linked social housing to the cost of living.

“Simon Busuttil pledged last year that he will reverse the rent hikes, which panicked Joseph Muscat enough for him to include it in his 2017 Budget,” Mifsud Bonnici said. “Yet the government is persisting in sending high bills to vulnerable families at risk of poverty. Michael Farrugia is clearly insensitive to their problems, and is under the illusion that they aren’t truly at risk of poverty.

“While some ministers go to Dubai to get drunk [Chris Cardona] and others [Konrad Mizzi] have companies in Panama, several Maltese families are suffering.”

Farrugia pledged last week that tenants will be refunded for the rent increases in one go, but failed to provide a date as to when this will take place. Addressing Parliament in his adjournment this evening, Farrugia noted that the previous PN administration had increased social housing rent prices from a few euro to €185 at the stroke of a pen back in 2010.

He also insisted that he will not take lessons from the PN on how to help out social housing tenants, recounting how the previous PN administration was in favour of increasing electricity bills.

“Higher electricity bills would have impacted people in social housing too. Maybe if they apologize for that, then perhaps I’ll be able to take them more seriously.”

During the press conference, Opposition MP Robert Cutajar lambasted the Labour government for not building a single new social housing unit throughout its four years in power, warning that applications for social housing are on the rise.

He recounted how a family with three children living in social housing had recently approached the PN to complain at how ARMS had cut off their water and electricity supply after they couldn’t afford to pay the bills.

“This family was forced to even throw away the food they had stored in the fridge and freezer,” he said.