600 contractors join MDA register set up last month

Some 600 contractors have registered themselves with the Malta Developers Association (MDA) after the setting up of a register last month.

The National Contractors Registry was set up last month, in a joint initiative with the Building Regulation Office, and includes details about all contractors currently operating in Malta, including those carrying out excavation and demolition, as well as bricklayers and builders.

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg has acknowledged that the voluntary register was not an ideal solution, and pledged earlier this month to have a proper licensing system by the end of the year. He said that once a legal framework has been put in place, licenses can be issued on the basis of that legislation.

Speaking during a meeting with Nationalist Party leader Adrian Deila, MDA president Sandro Chetcuti said the association was also looking to set up a number of courses under the umbrella of the Malta Developers Academy. More details would be announced in the coming weeks, Chetcuti said.

The MDA president said that contractors were facing a “big problem with the rapidly increasing levels of bureaucracy”.

“We feel as if we have gone back to square one where what used to be a ‘can be done’ attitude is being lost in favour of a ‘strong with the weak and weak with the strong’ attitude being adopted by the authorities,” Chetcuti said.

He also touched up new legislation drafted by the government for the rental market, which he said had created more problems than it had solved.

“We have a situation where an agreement between two parties is being superseded by the law,” he added.

Rental market unaffordability the government’s own doing

Chetcuti’s sentiment was echoed by Delia who insisted that the PN would continue insisting on a healthy and fair rental market.

Delia said that the present system, together with the changes being proposed by the government would not be solving the problems being faced by the country. Rather, he said that through the new laws, the government would be placing a disproportionate burden on landlords, without taking responsibility itself.  

“The problems in the rental market were brought on by the government’s decision to grow the economy by increasing the population without having a long-term plan in place,” Delia said, adding that this was having a negative impact on various sectors, including the property market.

These problems, he said, are negatively impacting youths who simply want to have a roof over their heads and on the elderly, who will end up without a roof over their heads, as a result of the proposed law.