XN000022-1995-02-22 — Page 29

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Meeting the policy commitment

In the policy commitments which formed part of the Governor's Address last year, the Government announced that an additional 141,000 public rental flats would be built before April 2001. These flats represent total new production from both redevelopment and new sites, and are not intended to be additional to the targets contained in the Public Housing Development Programme. These flats are an integral part of that Programme. They also take into account the rental units which will be demolished over the same period under the comprehensive redevelopment programme, this method has always been used in the preparation of the Public Housing Development Programme. The policy commitment target for rental housing is also base on this very same method of calculation.

We are making every effort to meet our objective of producing 141,000 rental flats in the six years between April 1995 and April 2001. Some 223 hectares of land have already been allocated to the Housing Authority and the Housing Society, and this more than meets the full land requirement for the production of these rental flats. We will continue to work closely with these two organisations to ensure that the flats will come on stream as scheduled. I can assure Members that the recently established Housing Project Action Team, which I lead, will actively monitor progress, co- ordinate action and resolve problems relating to the public housing sites. We are working closely with the Housing Authority and have already identified some potential new housing sites.

Waiting list for public rental housing

Some Members have referred to the backlog of 150,000 applications on the Housing Authority's general waiting list. According to past experience, not all these applications constitute a real demand for public rental housing because a significant proportion are existing tenants wanting to change flats. Others may be rehoused through other quotas or may be found ineligible. For example, the majority of Temporary Housing Area residents and urban squatters who are on the waiting list will be rehoused through the clearance allocation rather than the general waiting list. As already announced, we expect that by 1997/98, about 70% of the backlog on the After 1997/98, when general waiting list as at August 1993 will be cleared.

Temporary Housing Areas and urban squatters on Government land have been cleared and given the increase in public housing production thereafter, we should be able to handle waiting list applicants much faster.