XN000022-1995-02-22 — Page 28

15.

Motion debate on land supply for public rental housing

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic S W Wong, in the motion debate on land supply for public rental housing in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I am grateful to the Honourable Andrew Wong for proposing this debate, and have listened with interest to what Members have said. The debate gives me the opportunity to clear up a few misconceptions and to inform this Council what the Government has done and will do to match the supply and demand of land for public rental housing.

Rectifying misconceptions

The suggestions that an additional 90 or 38 hectares of land should be granted to the Housing Authority before July 1997 for the construction of public rental housing flats are misleading. Some of the reports on which Members based their comments only broadly indicate the amount of new land which may be made available for rental housing and other types of development. They do not necessarily reflect the actual amount of land which the Government has already allocated to the Housing Authority and the Housing Society.

Apart from new and redevelopment sites, there is also another source of supply which also makes a substantial contribution to meeting the demand for public rental housing. Sitting tenants who are successful in their applications under the Home Ownership Scheme and the Private Sector Participation Scheme are required to surrender their rental units upon acquiring the new flats. Since the inception of these schemes in 1978, we have recovered over 70,000 rental flats from this source, for re- allocation to others in need. Over the next five years, we estimate that about 60,000 rental flats will be recovered from tenants in this manner, to be subsequently refurbished and allocated to eligible families.

Policy on land supply for public housing

Let me assure Members that the Government's policy is to provide enough land to meet housing demand in the public and private sectors. The demand for public housing fluctuates owing to factors such as population growth, the timing of redevelopment and clearance programmes, and the market price of private housing. It is a constantly moving target. However, our aim has always been to make available sufficient land to meet the additional requirements arising from regular reviews of public housing demand.