A very short five-day consultation period on the new regulations will be kicking off as early as next Monday

As news of another construction-caused building collapse broke this morning, a scheduled meeting between Joseph Muscat and stakeholders in the industry led to the sudden announcement by the Prime Minister that all permits for demolition and excavation works around Malta have been revoked.

Apart from the revocation of all permits, Muscat ordered any ongoing excavation and demolition works to halt as of today until a “solution” can be found and a way forward can be agreed on. Following the statement, the Prime Minister went on to outline how these new restrictions will be enforced.

While all excavation and demolition works have been halted, the fines for developers will be drastically increased from €5,000 to €10,000… with a reform for the sector being rushed through as early as next week

“We don’t want to water down the solution to the least common denominator, but to understand the difficult decisions that need to be taken,” Muscat said. “And the government is ready to take this action.”

A particularly short, five-day consultation period will kick off next Monday, but a couple of initiatives have already been revealed

Muscat said geotechnical surveys will be introduced and carried out not only before the excavation and demolition works, but also during the development.

Speaking about the new restrictions, Muscat said these will have to be enforced by making the roles and responsibilities of the site managers, architects and developers more clear, to ensure “no one cuts corners”.

In the reform, the site manager or architect will have to be documented on-site when crucial decision like excavation and demolition are taking place.

While fines will increase from €5,000 to €10,000, these will be further increased to €50,000 in the case of developers continuing to work even if they receive a stop notice

That being said, excavation will continue for some very special exceptions, Muscat explained. These examples will be cases where, if halted, ongoing excavation or demolition will only lead to further danger.

Muscat continued by saying the current issues are with smaller buildings, and not larger scale projects, going on to say that all stakeholders and in synergy that the issue finally needs to be properly addressed.

This morning, another building next door to a construction site partially collapsed, this time in Ħamrun

The block of apartments on Mimosa Street had its third-party wall being torn out during works, with residents inside the apartments rushing out of their homes as their walls caved in.

This marks the third major accident of its kind in just two months, and the latest in a string of construction-related accidents.

What do you make of this proposed reform?

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