Nov 18 - Not Enough Government Housing – Claims GSD
The GSD has welcomed the commencement of the Government’s Affordable Housing Scheme that will see 564 apartments built at the Aerial farm site and a further 380 flats at the Coach Park. The GSD has, however, claimed that these homes will go up for sale, providing little consolation for those on the Government Housing Waiting List.
The Opposition notes, ‘as at September 2013 there were 1,651 applicants on the Housing Waiting List plus a further 394 on the pre-list. This brings a combined grand total of 2,045 applicants. These applicants are too numerous for all to be offered an opportunity to purchase their own home, even if they so desire and can afford it.
The Opposition will press the Government for details of the activities of Credit Finance Company Limited in Thursday’s Parliament session. All of the GSD’s oral questions will be centred around Credit Finance and the money invested in it by the Gibraltar Savings Bank.
The Minister with responsibility for Financial Services Albert Isola, left Gibraltar on Saturday 16th November for Jakarta, Indonesia (via Hong Kong) to represent Gibraltar at the OECD Global Forum which is being held this week. The conference begins with an official dinner for all participants on the Wednesday and concludes on the Friday evening. The Global Forum consists of around 110 countries and concentrates on issues surrounding transparency and exchange of information. Gibraltar has attended the Global Forum and its predecessor formats since their inception in 1999. About 90 countries have confirmed their participation at this year’s conference.
Commenting on the EU Commission’s statement on unlawful frontier checks this afternoon, Minister for Europe David Lidington has insisted that they are making ‘strong recommendations to the Spanish government to improve the situation in Gibraltar’.
