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HOUSING ? Legislation is not enough
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While broadly welcome, the recently passed Housing Act raises many questions and does not deal with the core issues of housing ? namely its provision and the criteria for allocation of Housing.
Fresh legislation may provide a supporting role but Government must do much more to address the fundamental concerns of those people who are on the Housing list and who cannot afford to buy. The entire system of the allocation of Housing and the resources used to administer it should be reviewed and enhanced because people in need cannot get a better service until that happens, says the PDP.
They add: Quite clearly these matters need to be dealt with much more vigorously if the key Housing issues are to be dealt with. In his Budget Speech the Minister for Housing has promised that ?the future looks bright?. Judging by past performance people would be justified at being sceptical. Time alone will demonstrate if this is so.
The Progressive Democratic Party say they have already commented on the Landlord and Tenant Part of the Housing Act. The rest of the legislation principally deals with administrative issues and the occupation and use of public sector housing [Part I], anti-social behaviour [Part III] and property management [Part IV]. The PDP would like to highlight various areas of concern within this new Act:
OCCUPATION AND USE OF PROPERTY
The Act requires a tenant to be in occupation for not less than 270 days every year. Whilst this makes the tenancy conditions fairer, the PDP are interested to know how Government proposes to police this. Although Section 26 makes provision for the monitoring of electricity and water consumption as a means of doing so, the PDP does not feel this is a reliable manner in which to ascertain occupation by the tenant and therefore question whether enough thought has been given to this matter.
Section 7 provides that Government tenants should not own other property in Gibraltar. This should be strictly enforced to ensure that there are no abuses which allow tenants to reside within Government property whilst sub-letting other residential property. Government property should be available in priority to those who most need it.
THE HOUSING CRITERIA
Whilst this Act is not about specifying the criteria for Housing and entitlement to it, this area should also be thoroughly reviewed. The PDP believe that this should be applied on a non-discriminatory basis to all persons and couples irrespective of sexual orientation and whether married or not. The criteria should recognize the social and physical reality of our present social makeup. There is also much concern with the fact that the applicant must be 21 years old before he/she can be considered for housing. Clearly, this may have been an ideal age 20 years ago, but it is time that this too was revised and lowered.
The PDP cautiously welcomes the measures taken in this Act to create an offence for any person who occupies premises without authority or gives false or misleading information in an application for housing. However, the PDP question whether Government intends to review the current tenancy database to ensure this provision can be fully enforced with accurate information on who is listed as being a tenant in each case.
DECANTING
With regard the power to decant people in section 15 Government should confirm that it does not intend to use this power to make way for luxury developments without consultation or due consideration being given to the tenants concerned
THE RIGHT TO BUY
Section 32 deals with the right to buy Government Housing. At the last budget speech given by the Housing Minister and again in this year?s speech, it was mentioned that Government would retain ownership of flats whose tenants do not buy. He also said that Government was proceeding with test cases to assess the documentation they propose to use as well as the scheme itself.
Clearly if in large estates there is little demand for this it brings a number of property management issues which would require careful consideration. The PDP call on Government to provide further details of the type of properties that it envisages would fall within the scope of this clause and whether pilot schemes are to be attempted and if so where. The PDP hope that Government will make its plans public so that this can be assessed in a constructive spirit.
ANTI?SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
The PDP welcomes the introduction of ASBOS within Housing Estates or ?in the vicinity of a housing area?. This is an important first step to ensuring that the unacceptable behaviour attributed to youngsters to the detriment of everyone else, is curbed, thus allowing members of the public to enjoy a better quality of life at home.
However, that said, the PDP feel that this measure alone is not enough and the party shall be publishing its policy on Youth setting out how our youth generally should be helped by Government.
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