Public support for housing upgrades urged
January 17, 2014
Secretary for Transport & Housing Prof Anthony Cheung has called for community support to help the Government overcome the challenges it faces in boosting public housing supply.
Speaking at a press conference today, Prof Cheung said building 80,000 units under the Home Ownership Scheme is a big task, and the Government must find sufficient land, complete town planning procedures on time, and deal with labour shortages in the construction industry.
In response to a question on the Housing Authority’s capacity to meet this demand, Prof Cheung noted it is a challenge, adding that Chief Executive CY Leung pledged in his recent Policy Address to ensure the authority has sufficient financial resources.
He said community support is important in town planning procedures, which is why the Government has been urging people to work together to help increase public housing supply.
Speaking at the same press conference, Secretary for Development Paul Chan said the Government wants to increase the development density of several pieces of land removed from the 2013-14 Land Sale Programme, if it is permissible in terms of planning and infrastructure capacity, so the land can be fully utilised.
Secretary for the Environment KS Wong also said at the press conference the Government has set a target of reducing waste by 40% in the next 10 years, but there will still be waste that needs to be handled by incinerators or landfills.
Mr Wong said these facilities are needed to meet demand, and will require about 10 years’ preparation, so they should be developed together, not selectively.
