[WATCH] Bernard Grech admits PN manifesto mistake on housing rent subsidies

Nationalist leader Bernard Grech has half-heartedly admitted a typo error in the party’s proposal on rent subsidies found in the manifesto. 

On Thursday, Peter Agius and Ivan Bartolo insisted that tenants with pre-1995 rental contracts will continue benefitting from existing subsidies despite the Nationalist Party manifesto saying otherwise.

The pair refused to admit the proposal in the manifesto had a typo error that changed the sense of what the PN intended.

“We never had a problem in admitting our mistakes. The PN is made up of people who are not perfect,” Grech told the media following a visit at the Junior College on Friday. “We humbly accept that we can make mistakes, but let’s see how our proposals will change people’s lives to the better.”

He said it was a priority for the party to address the issue, saying Prime Minister Robert Abela only applied existing legislation when implementing a reform last year. 

“I had spoken about it in January 2021. I had said it was a ticking time bomb, and Robert Abela had tried addressing it, but only applied a rent law which was already in place,” he said. 

Pre-1995 rental contracts were liberalised last year but the law introduced safeguard mechanisms to cap rental payments and ensure government will subsidise the increases for as long as the tenants live there.

“We don’t want to leave people alone like Robert Abela. We don’t accept a situation where an 80-year-old is spending the last years of her life going to court trying to solve the situation,” he said.