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Reply:
(a)
(b)
Mr President,
of the reasons for such a disparity in the expenses on publicising the two housing policies; and
whether additional provision will be made available for publicising the "Rent Assistance Scheme" so that regular publicity can be launched in newspapers and on radio and television; if so, when the additional provision will be forthcoming; if not, why not?
It would not be appropriate to compare publicity expenses for the Rent Assistance Scheme directly with those for the consultation document on "Safeguarding the Rational Allocation of Public Housing Resources". The nature, scale, people targets and approaches of the two publicity drives are basically very different.
The purpose of the consultation document on "Safeguarding the Rational Allocation of Public Housing Resources" was to introduce a new policy to address the problem of "better-off tenants" living in public rental housing. Since the proposals would have a direct bearing on all sitting and future public rental housing tenants, and were a fundamental issue of allocation and use of public resources, we had to handle the consultation with great care. We aimed to encourage discussion among different sectors of the community through various channels, with a view to obtaining the widest possible feedback from the community within the three-month consultation period.
On the contrary, the Rent Assistance Scheme is not a new policy. It has been in operation since 1992. The target group is confined to sitting tenants facing temporary financial difficulties. So far, over 1,400 families have benefited under the Scheme. The publicity expenditure incurred under this Scheme relates mainly to the use of posters, pamphlets and radio commercials. Apart from these normal publicity activities, we also make use of other opportunities to promote the Scheme, for example, through daily contacts of Housing Department staff and Estate Liaison Officers with tenants. We also remind those households in need to apply for assistance under the Scheme through notification letters to tenants on rent revision and the Housing Authority's bi-monthly newsletters. The expenses incurred on these more direct promotion activities are not included in the publicity expenditure of the Rent Assistance Scheme.
In 1996/97, we have budgeted for some $200,000 in connection with publicity of the Rent Assistance Scheme. We will launch more newspaper advertisements and radio commercials, and revamp the package of printed materials on the Scheme.
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