Labour leader's resolution

The recent Bill on rent law reform has been received with general consensus and approval. The successful launching of this much-awaited reform is due to the fact that the proposals are not lop-sided: they constitute a fair deal to all stakeholders, they allay the fears of the lessees who are used to cheap rental protection by introducing change gradually and with a social view in mind, and, at the same time, the proposals provide a welcome relief, in some cases immediate, in others gradual, to property owners.

This government had already in the past assisted landlords by liberalising all new lease agreements of whatever nature after June 2005. It had indeed legally divested itself of the powers under the Housing Act to issue requisition orders and practically stopped the nefarious practice of issuing possession and use orders.

However, it is true that the value of property in a small island is bound to be precious and successive governments had kept rent reform in deep freeze. There is no doubt that when rent control and security of tenure were first heralded at the turn of the last century, they were needed.

The emergence of a middle class at the expense of the privileged land owners and the social realities of the industrial society required state intervention and I still believe in some state intervention even today. But the old law, as fossilised and interpreted by our law courts, had given rise to gross abuses and injustices mostly at the expense of the landlord. Indeed, the latter, in most cases, had to provide protection to lessees who were in a far better economic condition than he. This situation was crying out loud for reform.

And reform is here. John Dalli`s launching of the White Paper, which had been drafted in part by Dolores Cristina in the last Legislature, and the wide range of consultations conducted have triggered off a civilised debate inside and outside Parliament.

The Bill avoids the liberal laissez faire attitude to security of tenure, guaranteeing a right of inheritance of the lease to spouses and immediate descendants who need it while, at the same time, providing light at the end of the tunnel to property owners.

Indeed, PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier boldly offered to submit all political party clubs to the new reform. Labour greeted this appeal with stony silence. It was proper for Social Policy Minister Dalli to accept this proposal, so that even political party clubs will be subject to the new rent law by 2010.

There is, however, a category of property which needs to be given attention too. In the early 1970s, abuses were committed by the then Housing Department which used the Housing Act to requisition private property for the benefit of the then party in government. Rather than seeking leased property in the rent market, Labour's leadership conveniently preferred to usurp legislation meant to provide housing accommodation to meet its own partisan needs. There are at least three properties that were so requisitioned, that is to say compulsorily taken possession of at the expense of private owners and awarded at a pittance to the Labour Party (PL).

Joseph Muscat's New Year's resolution should be that of renouncing to the legal effects of these requisition orders and let go these properties, which have been snatched from ordinary citizens to the benefit of the then party in government. Such a resolution, I feel, would be more relevant than the recent PL leader's obsession with female lawyer's skirts and trousers.

Let him be so bold as to give back to private owners what was stolen from them in the past.

Dr Borg is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.