John Culatto
GIBRALTAR’S leader has branded an Opposition member a ‘con-man’ for suggesting the global pandemic and Brexit were an ‘excuse’ for not completing government homes on time.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said GSD member Damon Bossino was ‘indecisive’ and ‘unpersuasive’ over the delays.
“It is a shame that Mr Bossino and the GSD want to stoop so low as to call a worldwide pandemic that has taken the lives of 112 Gibraltarians an ‘excuse’,” Picardo said.
Gibraltar’s government sells homes to home-seekers at half the cost price.
Hassan Centenary Terraces, Bob Peliza Mews, and Chatham Views are some of the developments affected by the two issues.
With a difficult election set for the end of the year, the two main parties have repeatedly locked horns in their battle in recent weeks.
The government said the GSD was ‘trying to trick the purchasers by pretending that the delays are the fault of the GSLP Liberal Government’.
Picardo’s administration said the delays were ‘due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of the Government’.
He said that Brexit was also having its own ‘effect on building contracts’.
“The GSLP Liberal Government has worked every day to deliver these homes and will continue doing so,” the Chief Minister added.
“The GSD could not have done things any quicker and the purchasers will see through this attempted, cruel, contract by Mr Bossino who is an unpersuasive con-man in this attempt to con this part of our electorate.”
Sir Joe Bossano first came up with the scheme to sell flats at half price to local residents in his time as Chief Minister between 1988 and 1996.
It gave working class people the best chance to enter the housing market outside the booming private sector which would prove too costly for them.
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