Dismantling of housing department led to ‘neglect’ in estates - Labour

However, in the past year, tenants were forced to go to the Housing Authority to apply for maintenance in government flats, having to pay a fee of €40 to obtain the application.

Addressing a PL press conference this morning on the neglect of government housing estates over the years outside a Santa Lucija government-owned housing estate, he explained that once the application is approved, the tenants would have to engage a private contractor to do the works, which was causing a lot of hassle to residents.

Moreover, he lamented that the government was failing to maintain common areas in government-owned flats, leading to neglect in Government-owned apartments.

Journalists were shown an apartment block strewn with graffiti and a letter box room which had been left in the dark.

He explained how there were often disagreement between residents in maintaining common areas and in installing lifts and intercoms, among other things.

Addressing the press conference, Labour’s main spokesperson for Planning Roderick Galdes accused the government of dismantling the construction and maintenance department when the department of social housing was merged with the Housing Authority (HA) a few years ago, instead of keeping the department within the merged authority.

“As a result of this, the expertise of a few people who knew inside out the various government estates across Malta has been lost,” he insisted.

“Labour does not agree with the dismantling of the Social Housing Department,” the Labour MP added.

On his part, Labour’s main spokesperson for Housing Stefan Buontempo insisted that these government flats were national capital assets and therefore they had to be maintained property.

He also announced that the PL would be organising training courses for local councillors starting from September to train them how to deal with housing issues as the Government had failed to set up a promised one-stop shop for councils to help them deal with housing issues had not materialised.

“If the Government does not give councils the tools with, the PL would,” the Labour MP insisted.