Updated | Developers want ‘unjust’ laws penalising landowners changed as farmers fear for their livelihoods

Government should revise archaic laws on land and property use, the Malta Developers Association said in the wake of a court judgment on agricultural leases.

The MDA said that numerous old laws have repeatedly been deemed anti-constitutional and in breach of the rights of landowners.

The association was reacting to yesterday’s ruling by the constitutional court that concluded the current Agricultural Leases (Reletting) Act breached the Constitution.

The court ruled that the law which grants tenants of agricultural leases an indefinite right of renewal, breaches the owners’ fundamental rights.

“A serious government is morally and legally bound to protect all its citizens from any form of injustice, even if these happen to be land owners. During the past years, the government continued to discriminate against land owners and looking the other way despite court rulings that deemed certain laws to be in breach of the Constitution, and the European Convention of Human Rights,” the MDA said.

The association said it will continue to insist that these outdated laws, which were put in place decades ago in a completely different economic scenario, are adjourned to reflect today’s realities.

“While it is not fair that tenants are not protected, the same yardstick should apply to landowners, who lease out their properties to third parties. Unfortunately, so far, all Maltese administrations have ignored several appeals made by the MDA, including the need to tackle injustices concerning the pre-1995 rent laws,” the association said.

It urged all landowners to join its landlords’ section to form a common front and insist on a correction of these “flagrant injustices”.

Farmers seek government protection

Meanwhile, a farmers’ activist group is concerned that the constitutional court ruling could threaten the livelihood of farmers and the country’s food security.

The Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi said the court ruling created a historic precedent for the agricultural sector. “Farmers that work on private tenements can end up without land and a farmer without land cannot produce food,” the group said.

It called on government to react urgently to the new reality farmers find themselves in.

The group urged government to introduce new rules to ensure agricultural land leases for private tenements reflect market prices, set up schemes to help farmers buy the land they work on if owners want to sell, provide fiscal incentives to landowners who allow farmers to till the land, and a subsidy scheme for farmers to pay their lease.

The group also called on the Planning Authority to be more vigilant in the protection of rural environments by ensuring that zones are not formalised through the widening of passageways, and the conversion of rural structures into residences and guesthouses