The pilot Co-ordinated Maintenance of Buildings Scheme has proven effective in promoting good building management and maintenance.

Secretary for Housing, Planning & Lands Michael Suen said in the Legislative Council today that the Buildings Department, in collaboration with six other Government bodies, embarked on the scheme to foster partnerships with private building owners and provide support in building maintenance and promoting good building management.

Phase one of the scheme started in late 2000, and of the 150 target buildings covered, 143 have works undertaken on them. Among these, 97 have completed the necessary repair works, with more than 7,000 unauthorised building works removed. And 22 of 40 buildings which did not previously have an Owner's Corporation have now formed one.

Under Phase Two, another 200 buildings were selected for implementation in late 2001. Among them, repair works have been undertaken on 81 buildings and 10 have repair works already completed.

"[These] have demonstrated that the scheme is effective in promoting building maintenance and good building management," Mr Suen said. "The Buildings Department is now extending the scheme to cover more buildings."

After extensive public consultation, the Government announced in April 2001 a comprehensive strategy for building safety and timely maintenance. The department's target is to remove up to 300,000 unauthorised building works in five to seven years. It will first focus its efforts on those posing imminent danger.

It will also conduct blitz operations to remove hundreds of unauthorised building works, mainly on external building walls.

"In future, we will continue to work closely with the Home Affairs Bureau to impress upon building owners the importance of timely maintenance through education and publicity, and to provide building owners with appropriate assistance, including the Building Safety Loan Scheme," Mr Suen said.

The $700 million loan fund was set up in July, 2001. Up to March, 2003, the scheme has provided $132 million in loans to building owners.

"We will continue to strengthen various publicity measures to promote the use of the loan fund by building owners to improve building safety and maintenance. Separately, we will introduce the Buildings (Amendment) Bill into the Legislative Council shortly to improve the regulatory regime of building works and building safety."

The Bill contains a number of proposals. They include:

* The introduction of a new category of minor works to enable qualified building professionals and contractors to undertake specified minor works, without the need for Building Authority approval. Such works include the erection and removal of signboards as well as the removal of unauthorised building works;

* Increasing the number of people with relevant experience who may sit on a Contractors' Registration Committee and extending the registration or renewal period for professionals under the Buildings Ordinance;

* Requiring the provision of emergency vehicular access for new buildings;

* Specifying clearly the responsible parties for unauthorised building works; and,

* Increasing fines in connection with serious offences and creating new offences for prosecution purposes.

"We will further review the Buildings Ordinance and the relevant regulations on standards of building design and construction in order to increase flexibility and facilitate the use of modern and innovative building design," Mr Suen said, adding that the study will cover lighting and ventilation standards as well as standards of fire safety and sanitary facilities.

"We will consider the need to introduce relevant legislative amendments after the study has been completed," he said.

"I appreciate that building management and maintenance inevitably involve legal and financial considerations. The success of our strategy requires the acceptance and participation of building owners.

"Over the next few months, we will carefully consider various issues and options, with a view to publishing a consultation paper by the end of the year to seek the views of building management companies, professional bodies, District Councils, Owners' Corporations and Mutual Aid Committees."

The Department will seek a consensus on the way forward before deciding on the implementation details, he said.