Prime Minister Robert Abela pledged on Friday to increase student stipends by 15 per cent if re-elected in the March 26 general election.

This is an improvement over the 10 per cent increase promised in the budget for this year.

As promised during the last budget, students will also be able to work part-time for up to 25 hours a week and keep their stipend, an increase from the previous 20-hour cap, Abela said.

“We have a track record on stipend increases and we also gave students the option to work too because we reward hard-working people. We are close to youths and we know what they want and need,” Abela told a party activity in Zebbug.

As already announced, he said first-time home buyers would be entitled to an annual grant of €1,000 per year for 10 years, irrespective of their income. 

This would only be possible if Labour is re-elected to government, he stressed.

The government would pay the approximate equivalent of a month's loan each year for 10 years.

He also spoke about Labour’s pledge to invest €700 million in environmental and urban greening projects such as St Anne Street, another green area in Ħamrun and several other ideas. 

In some cases, traffic would be redirected to underground tunnels and existing buildings would be knocked down to make space for green areas in the heart of some of the busiest towns.

The plan is to convert the Ħamrun milk factory in the Milend area into a large garden in the heart of the town, complete with underground parking. The factory would be moved to an industrial site.

St Anne Street in Floriana would be turned into a garden, with traffic rerouted underground, and the same would happen in central San Ġwann, in front of the church.

Labour had announced these measures in their first press conference of the 2022 electoral campaign.

Price stability on energy, will watch price of cereals and wheat

Abela also pledged that the government will keep energy prices stable, "no matter what" and that he was giving the same commitment on the price of cereals and wheat, since Ukraine was one of the main exporters of these products, by continuing to protect people from any price increases.

Speaking about the sanctions imposed on Russia, he said they were not expected to have a substantial commercial impact on Malta. Some people who invested in Russia who could potentially be impacted but the government would protect these investors as much as possible.

On giving 16-year-olds the right to vote, Abela said he wanted the next step to be giving them the right to contest an election.

He reiterated that pensioners will continue seeing their pensions increase by €15 a week, which is equivalent to more than €2,300 over five years. This does not include the cost of living adjustment. 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.