Action for Housing challenges Minister's claims, calls for accountability on sale and reinvestment of public rental flats

Action for Housing has challenged Government Minister Pat Orfila’s purported claims about the housing shortage, pointing out that both GSD and GSLP administrations have sold public rental flats without reinvesting in new rental stock.

Pressure group Action for Housing has addressed recent claims purportedly made by the Minister for Housing, Pat Orfila, during a meeting with Gibraltarians of Moroccan Origin, where she is said to have claimed that there is no money to build new government rental stock and attributed the current housing shortage to the sale of up to 1,000 flats by the previous GSD administration.

In a statement from Action for Housing it stated that it has thoroughly investigated these claims, and after analysing Hansard, it noted that former Minister for Housing, Samantha Sacramento, during her speech on the Appropriation Bill on July 3, 2018, confirmed that 181 post-war rental flats were sold by the GSD.

Additionally, it noted that the current administration (GSLP) has continued to sell post-war rental flats.

Former GSLP Minister Steven Linares stated in Parliament on March 16, 2021 that between 2011 and 2020, 116 post-war flats were sold by the Government.

“Although the Chief Minister had maintained that it was not the Government’s policy to sell post-war stock, exceptions were supposedly made where prior agreements required it or where it was justified,” said the statement.

“Regarding pre-war rental stock, both the GSD and GSLP administrations have sold flats, although specific figures for the previous administration are unavailable.”

Action for Housing also said that Mr Linares stated in that session of Parliament that between 2011 and 2020, 20 pre-war flats were sold by the current Government.

This means that the GSLP administration between 2011 and 2020 sold a total of 136 rental stock flats.

“The current administration has not developed any new rental housing during its time in office (other than flats for pensioners), despite committing to do so in all its manifestos, with the last significant rental stock project being the Mid-Harbours estate by the previous administration,” said the Action For Housing statement.

“The ongoing sale of rental stock, particularly in the face of increased demand, reduces the number of homes available to those on Gibraltar’s growing housing waiting list.”

“We call on the Government to comply with their manifesto commitments and to finally prioritise the development of new rental housing to meet the needs of the community.”

It also calls on the Government to clarify whether the legal requirement under the Housing Act, which mandates that proceeds from the sale of public housing be reinvested into public housing, has been met.

“In the absence of new rental developments, the community deserves transparency on how funds from these sales have been utilised. We would like to see clear and accountable reporting on the reinvestment of funds generated from the sale of public housing made public,” said the statement.