World War II in Malta was a defining moment in our chequered history. The heavy bombings of the harbour areas ploughed through the once mighty Three Cities, Valletta and the surroundings, not only destroying buildings but also taking the lives of thousands. World War II left an indelible, deep scar on several aspects of Maltese life.
...behind every apartment built on land expropriated post war there is a family- Jason Azzopardi
The extensive damage called for a vast reconstruction plan, which the then post-war government implemented using a legal instrument, that is, expropriation by possession and use instead of by absolute purchase.
This system allowed the government to take over demolished buildings, paying the original owners a yearly “acquisition rent”, which was usually less than €28 a year, in order to reconstruct said buildings and distribute the new accommodation as necessary.
The original aim was for the government to capitalise, or purchase outright, the acquisition rent to put things in order within a few years. This, however, never happened and the cases we are addressing today for the first time go back to the years 1947, 1948 and 1951.
Due to this “incomplete” legal title, the government could never grant a proper, full title of ownership to the families who now live in these “new” units, as, logically, the government couldn’t give away what wasn’t its property to begin with.
For this reason, in the past months, the Land Department has been engaging in an extensive, complex legal exercise whereby the original owners (or their heirs) of the war-struck houses are being paid a lump sum according to law representing the redemption of the acquistition rent for their properties.
The government has, in the past year, invested €1 million, to capitalise the acquisition rent of almost 150 appartments in Cottonera and, finally, set the record straight.
The families who live in said apartments are now being offered, for the first time, the opportunity to become the owners of their own homes.
Hence, the government is addressing and solving three complex problems.
The capitalisation of these properties’ rents means that we are solving a legal nightmare that has been with us for the best part of 60 years. This problem is now history and we look forward to move on.
We are also honouring the commitment that the governments of the 1940s made but never honoured, paying the original owners of the war-struck properties and giving them what is rightfully theirs according to law.
Most importantly, we are giving the opportunity to several hundreds of families living in these housing estates to become owners of their homes for the first time once they are then transferred to the Housing Authority, which will acquire them for free from the Land Department.
Further to this, the government’s efforts in this area have been confirmed and are set to proceed, as outlined in the Budget for 2012. The government is, in fact, stepping up the tempo by allocating €1.8 million for each of the next three years to the Land Department, which will allow it to capitalise more acquisition rents, thus freeing these tenements from the shackles of a legal limbo, giving the opportunity to another 3,000 families in the Three Cities, Valletta and the surroundings to become owners of their residences.
This is the first time any government is addressing this issue so directly, concretely and massively.
This initiative works in tandem with another, similar, Land Department-driven exercise, which is giving more families the opportunity to become owners of the houses they reside in.
For 2012, the government is once again confirming its commitment to pay off expropriated private land, most of which was taken over in the 1970s and 1980s, on which whole housing estates were built. These areas form part of the then home onwership schemes, which gave land to families on which they could develop their homes.
Intrinsically, this scheme was good but it was half-baked. Never becoming the legitimate owner of the land, once again, the government, even in these cases, could not hand over ownership of the newly-built houses to the families. Hence, they were left with an indefinite promise of sale with all the inconvenience that brings about with it.
Investing about €5 million to address the complex legal Gordian knot of these home ownership schemes over the past two years, we have already helped 500 families become true and actual owners of their homes for the very first time. The areas addressed were Rabat, Burmarrad, Gudja, Sta Luċija, Paola and Mosta.
The government via the Land Department will next year be investing another €3 million to help even more families erase this nightmare from their lives, which has been vexing them for some 30 years or so.
With our comitment on this just cause, we want to set the record straight once and for all. We are putting our money where our mouth is and taking concrete steps to bring about justice to those who were deprived of their private property and those who are suffering the consequences till this day.
Statistics often make the news but we believe that behind every apartment built on land expropriated post war there is a family. These families remain central to our endeavours because we care. What the Land Department is doing, hand in hand with the Housing Authority, underlines this government’s social conscience.
Dr Azzopardi is Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Land.