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We also have in Hong Kong, I think, a real problem because despite the fact that people have been getting better-off, despite the fact that people have been earning more, it's still very difficult for some people who want to become home owners to afford the cost of home ownership.
Now those, I think, are the two biggest problems facing our housing administrators in the next few years. I am absolutely convinced that we need a good, substantial public rental housing programme in Hong Kong. I'm also convinced that that should provide as much as possible for those in need, for those who are elderly and need special accommodation, for other special groups and that we also need to give more help for people who want to own their own home.
Now at the moment we've got a housing programme which will provide about 140,000 public rental flats between now and the year 2001, over the next five years and a housing programme which will provide about 175,000 subsidised flats for ownership over the same period. That is, for a community this size, a pretty big programme, but it's still clearly not enough to meet the demands which I've already mentioned.
If I can say a word about the specific problem you mentioned, that is some housing blocks being redeveloped and moving from public rental to HOS. In those cases we are trying to ensure that those whose flats are being redeveloped are given new accommodation in, broadly speaking, the same district. We do have a huge programme of redevelopment of older property. I think I'm right in saying there are over 200 older blocks which are being redeveloped at the moment at considerable expense. I think we want to keep that programme going forward and we have to take account in that programme, not only of the needs of people who want to rent but of the needs of people who want to buy.
Finally, we're about to complete our long-term housing strategy review, which will be published in the next few weeks and what that will provide is the focus for a real debate in the community about where this community wants the housing priorities to be in the next few years. Every housing group will have a chance of contributing to that debate, every non-governmental organisation, as well as everyone else who's involved in housing in any way. So I hope you'll contribute, your group will contribute the sort of arguments that you've been putting this evening. Nothing's more important for a family's well-being, nothing's more important for a community's stability than good housing, so it's vitally important that we get the results of the housing strategy review right and I'm sure that my successor will be dealing with the consequences of that review over the next five or ten years.