Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1425443
10 COMMERCIAL 4.11.2021 Updating Malta's National Spatial Strategy ONE way or another, everyone has a hand in shaping the world they will leave to their children and Malta's res- idents are no exception. If individuals, businesses and the country's authorities are to succeed in achieving sustainable development, both the goal and jour- ney to get there must be agreed upon. A strategy is needed. When it was released in 2015, Malta's Strategic Plan for Environment and De- velopment (SPED) sought to create just such a strategy. Drafted by the PA and approved by Parliament, the SPED is the holistic blueprint for Malta's path to sustainable development. Now, the plan is undergoing its first revision. "Our mission was always to integrate the economic, social and environmen- tal facets of Malta's development within a policy and planning framework that ensures sustainability," explains Perit Christopher Borg, the PA's Director of Planning. "e SPED remains Malta's overarch- ing vision for development and guides other subsidiary plans and polices and serves as a reference point for other Government policies with a spatial di- mension. But times change and new challenges emerge, which is why peri- odic revisions are a legal requirement integral to the SPED as a living docu- ment." In fact, the SPED's first review mile- stone was set to start in 2020, focusing on the character and quality of Malta's environment, conservation and devel- opment. e review is ongoing in the form of studies that analyse Malta's spa- tial strategy based on key performance indicators and data sourced from en- tities including the National Statistics Office and the Central Bank, amongst others. e studies also entail an evalu- ation of the spatial implications of Gov- ernment's current economic, social and environmental policies. "We are identifying past and present development trends to project Malta's future spatial needs, as well as to deter- mine how our sustainability framework can ensure that development today does not hinder the lives of future genera- tions. By updating our Spatial Strategy, we can plan for the required economic growth while safeguarding our environ- mental and social wellbeing," says Perit Borg. To this end, the National Spatial Strat- egy will rely on a number of studies, amongst which : 1. A Demography Study to analyse trends in population, migration and households, while providing alternative projections for the fu- ture. 2. An Employment Study to exam- ine employment trends and deter- mine employment forecasts, in- cluding types of jobs, retirement age and female participation in the workforce. e study will also project land use requirements to accommodate future jobs. 3. A Housing Study to establish the needs and demands for housing within the context of available land supply. 4. An Audit of current SPED policies based on indicators focusing (but not exclusively) on floorspaces ap- proved for uses across Malta's ur- ban, rural and coastal zones. e audit will determine whether ap- proved developments align with the SPED's Spatial Plan, and it will also assist in the identification of issues leading to any necessary re- visions of the plan. 5. A Review of Government's Sec- toral Policies to ensure that the various national sectors and pol- icies are integrated and translated into the new Spatial Strategy. Malta's Strategic Plan for Environment and Development is currently under review. Here, Perit Christopher Borg from Malta's Planning Authority (PA) shares his insight into the process and urges the public to get involved