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My colleagues have answered Members' questions on our expenditure proposals in detail during the Special Finance Committee meetings at the end of last month. And this afternoon they have responded to the main areas of criticism.
I will not repeat their points. I would like to touch briefly on three issues: housing, CSSA and our reserves. The Secretary for Housing and the Secretary for Health and Welfare have already explained just how much we are doing in the first two areas. I want to make a few more general points.
Housing
First, on housing. As a result of our recent measures, it appears that already there are fewer speculators in the property market. This is good news. But I accept that Government has a duty to continue its efforts. We need to help people to buy their own homes. Not, as I explained in my Budget Speech, through general tax concessions. We must target our help and the community's resources on those who need such assistance. The best way, and in the long term the only sure way, is to balance better the equation of supply and demand. By continuing to build more subsidised housing and by providing more land. I am personally committed to tackling this problem. And I look forward to working with my colleagues in my special task force to come up with new initiatives to do so. Our terms of reference are as follows-
to set overall programmes in supplying land for housing development so that planning, land acquisition, land formation, development of transport and other infrastructure can be prioritised and co-ordinated;
to consider ways and means to remove constraints in, and to expedite, the approval process and to take quick decisions where there are competing priorities;
to exploit opportunities for developing the land held by developers for housing purposes and to explore innovative proposals in providing the housing-related infrastructure; and
to ensure land available for public and private housing is fully and quickly developed into housing units.