A proposal to help low-income homeowners complete long-overdue repairs has received unanimous approval from the Southern Municipal Council, which is urging authorities to allow families to access unused portions of earlier restoration grants under the Towns and Villages Development Scheme.
The initiative, submitted by the council’s technical committee chairman Ahmed Al Abdulla, calls for homeowners who previously received less than the approved BD10,000 ceiling for renovations to be allowed to use the remaining balance to finish essential works.
The recommendation has been referred to Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture Minister Wael Al Mubarak for review.
Mr Al Mubarak earlier explained that the grant was one-off up to BD10,000 according to the needed work. He said that exceptions have also exceeded the BD10,000 following review by a specialised panel.
Mr Al Abdulla said the proposal came after repeated observations that many houses repaired years ago under the Towns and Villages Development Scheme had once again fallen into poor condition because the original allocations were not enough to address all structural issues.
“People shouldn’t be restricted to a one-off renovation service,” he said.
“If the cost was BD2,000 to fix a home at the time, the remaining BD8,000 should still be available to that family when the house needs attention again years later.”
He explained that during earlier phases of the scheme, high demand and application backlogs led some councils to reduce the amount granted per home to BD3,000 or BD5,000, well below the approved maximum.
“That meant only partial work was done. Some urgent repairs were addressed, but many underlying problems were left unresolved,” he noted.
“Today, we are seeing the same homes needing maintenance again because the job was never fully completed.”
The proposal highlights that administrative changes, including the reduction of governorates from five to four in 2014 and a lower number of new eligible cases, now provide an opportunity to address previous shortfalls without affecting new applicants.
The council’s services and public utilities committee chairman Ali Al Shaikh said the committee strongly supported the move after examining both the legal framework and the practical need.
“This is about equal treatment between households,” he said.
“One family received the full BD10,000 allocation, while another received only BD3,000 due to circumstances at the time. The difference has clearly affected the condition of those homes over the years.”
He noted that the original aim of the project was to improve housing conditions across Bahrain’s towns and villages by ensuring homes were properly restored and maintained.
“When smaller amounts were provided, the work carried out was temporary in nature. We are now dealing with the results of that,” he added.
“This proposal gives us a practical way to resolve the issue within the powers granted to municipal councils under the law.”
Mr Al Abdulla stressed that the request does not involve seeking new funding, but rather allowing better use of allocations that were already approved for these households.
“We are not asking for additional budgets,” he said. “We are asking to allow families to benefit fully from what was originally intended for them.”
The council voted unanimously to raise the recommendation to the minister, hoping the move will enable affected homeowners to finally complete repairs that were left unfinished years ago and prevent recurring maintenance problems in the future.
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