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Some Members have cast doubt on our ability to achieve such a substantial reduction in waiting time. As the Governor said in his Policy Address, this will be no easy task. But we are determined to use our best efforts to achieve it. Against the background of our flat availability position which I have just mentioned, we shall be helped by the historical trend that the number of persons who join the general waiting list but are eventually found not eligible, or who are rehoused through other schemes or quotas, accounts for about half of all applicants on the list. We shall also be able to increase the number of flats to be allocated to successful waiting list applicants from 1998 onwards, after our existing Temporary Housing Area residents and urban squatters on Crown land have been offered rehousing.

I also note that some other Members, far from regarding our target as over- ambitious, have asked us to reduce waiting time still further by allocating more land to the Housing Authority for the construction of more public rental flats. I would like to make our position clear on this. We have already allocated to the Housing Authority some 223 hectares of land, comprising new and redevelopment sites, to meet the target of building 141,000 new rental flats. In addition, about 185 hectares have been allocated or earmarked for building 148,000 home ownership scheme flats. These amounts of land are sufficient to achieve our present targets. Whether or not these targets need to be modified will depend on the outcome of our comprehensive assessment of housing demand in the next ten years, which is now approaching its final stage. This assessment will take into account factors such as population growth, the timing of redevelopment and the market price of private housing. Should an increase in demand be indicated, we will use our best endeavours to make additional land available as expeditiously as possible. We will also follow up Members' suggestion of increasing the plot ratio of public housing sites, so as to make the best use possible of our limited land resources. This suggestion ties in very well with our own thinking.

A few Members expressed concern about our pledge to privatise gradually public rental housing estate management. The fact is that our experience with similar arrangements in Home Ownership Scheme courts has shown that customer satisfaction with private management agencies is high. In addition, savings can be achieved, and scarce human resources can be released for redeployment elsewhere in the public sector where they are needed for new or improved activities. Having said this, I should make it clear that we do not intend to proceed precipitately. We shall carry out a pilot scheme in three selected rental estates, beginning in early 1996. Residents will themselves be able to monitor the performance of private management agencies both directly and through the Estate Management Advisory Committee scheme.