Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday presented 30 proposals for the upcoming Budget.

AD chairman Michael Briguglio said in a news conference the government’s expenditure programmes should be sustainable while aiming to improve environmental, social and economic targets.

He said his party supports a progressive income tax and believed that ceilings for low-income earners should be raised.

Property speculation should be taxed from the third vacant property onwards, particularly since Malta was a “perpetual building site”, with a quarter of properties vacant, Dr Briguglio said.

This would also encourage the renting and selling of vacant properties, intended for speculation purposes and the use of existing buildings rather than building more area.

AD said the minimum wage in Malta should increase and be extended to part-time and contractual workers as well as those who are being forced to register as self-employed by their employers.

AD general secretary Ralph Cassar called for a serious and extensive programme to utilise available roof space to generate clean energy. Sites for an onshore wind farm or in suitable offshore locations, for which experimental data by experts already exists, should be identified as soon as possible.

Solar water heaters should replace electrical water heaters in all buildings, coupled with a phase-out plan with corresponding fiscal incentives.

There should also be a national programme for the replacement of street lighting with low energy lighting.