Below follows a statement from the Govenrment in reply to Henry Pina:

In Mr Pinna’s open letter he makes certain allegations which are incorrect to say the least. 

Mr Pinna fails to understand what was actually stated in our 2015 manifesto. We committed to building more housing for the elderly. By building this type of rental homes we release larger government flats for rentals which in turn are allocated to younger couples with growing families. By continuing to build homes in this way, as we said,we are using taxpayer’s money more efficiently. 

Furthermore, we also stated in said manifesto, that we were committed to a policy of making it possible for all of our people to have a decent home in Gibraltar at affordable prices and/or for rental for those who cannot afford to do so. This has been at the core of the GSLP/Lib policy to date. We are committed to building Hassan Centenary Terraces, Bob Peliza Mews and Chatham Views which in turn will be releasing more flats into the housing stock for subsequent rental. 

In relation to the hostel, the Government is currently in the process of identifying and designing a new hostel. 

With regards to the Housing Act, the Government cannot understand why Mr Pinna is so anxious. The Minister offered Action for Housing the opportunity to be able to comment and see the bill before it becomes a Command Paper. Furthermore, Action for Housing has never asked for the Act to be reviewed. This is being done by the Minister because he wanted to update it. Mr Pinna has never shown any interest for this to be done and now he is coming across as if it’s an issue which is pressing. Yes, there have been delays due to COVID, though he does not want to accept this. 

Finally, in the period 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 a total of 137 allocations have been made. 40 of which had a social need and a further 40 a medical element. 

Minister for Housing, the Hon Steven Linares MP, said: ‘All the issues in Mr Pinna’s open letter, which are mentioned above, are not new and have been discussed privately and publically with me. As I stated in my Budget speech, Action for Housing meets with the Principal Housing Officer once a month and I am fully briefed of their discussions, which show transparency in all issues appertaining to Housing. As a Minister I have never shied away from challenging issues and I have always been available to MrPinna,the media and the general public. Finally, aswe have said before, one of the biggest problems we are dealing with is empty post-war properties that were sold by the GSD. This amounted to the GSD selling the family silver and selling it dirt cheap – where the sale of these homes has been at about a quarter of the cost to replace the properties and where the resale value is sometimes up to 8 to 10 times the purchase price. This is a scandal. As a result, we have lost 150 excellent homes (almost half an estate) which we could have been allocating to families who need them and which have been lost to the government as a result of that very bad policy deployed by the GSD. With those additional homes available, we would have been able to relieve a lot of hardship. We are now planning additional ways of helping our people and when we are ready we will announce those plans.’