ENG-1988 — Page 217

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HOUSING

buildings require maintenance including 1 500 housing blocks, numerous shopping centres, schools, community facilities, multi-storey carparks, pedestrian walkways and footbridges. In the 1987-8 financial year 95 major contracts, with a total value of $822 million, were let for maintenance works.

With the emphasis on planned maintenance, buildings are inspected and problems dealt with before they get out of hand. Maintenance policy is closely linked to the redevelopment programme, and repair and improvement programmes are geared to the condition and the life expectancy of each building. Over the past two years a major condition survey was conducted during which 440 000 flats were inspected. Sophisticated diagnostic tests were carried out in many buildings, including tests to determine the extent of steel corrosion in concrete. The development of planned and preventive maintenance strategies has led to the use of dedicated term contracts for individual estates. This programme involves 107 estates, an estimated expenditure of about $1.9 billion over a six-year period, and includes structural, roofing, plumbing and drainage work.

The upgrading of building services installations in the older estates continued with some $40 million being spent on improvement work during the year. The major improvement programmes included the re-wiring and reinforcement of electrical installations, installa- tion of communal TV/FM aerial systems, provision of towngas supply, addition of lifts, and the complete overhaul of water supply systems. The division also embarked on a fire services installation improvement programme to provide a more efficient fire-fighting capability within buildings.

Routine maintenance of building services installations was carried out at a cost of around $95 million in 1987-8. This involved the servicing of over 3 800 lifts and 50 escalators, 3 000 pumps, 1 000 cubicle switchboards, 970 communal TV/FM aerial systems, as well as numerous outdoor lighting and fire service installations, central air-conditioning and sewage treatment plants.

In addition, improvements in energy management resulted in savings in excess of $6 million for the year, and new energy-saving measures were explored with a view to further reducing electricity costs.

Home Ownership Scheme

To meet the community's growing aspirations, the government established the Home Ownership Scheme in the late 1970s to help lower-middle income families and public housing tenants to become home owners by providing flats for sale at prices below market value.

Before April 1, 1988, the Housing Authority acted on the government's behalf in administering the HOS, using government funds. With the re-organisation of the Housing Authority on that date, the responsibility for the scheme has been taken over by the authority.

Private sector applicants for HOS flats may not own domestic property and are subject to a household income limit of $8,500 per month. These restrictions, however, do not apply to rental estate tenants. The income restriction is not applied to residents of temporary housing areas and cottage areas managed by the Housing Authority, households displaced by clearance of squatter areas for development, natural disaster victims and junior civil

servants.

Since the scheme started in 1978, a total of 99 573 flats, including 30 140 produced under the complementary PSPS, have been sold to eligible families. About 44 per cent of these families were public housing tenants who were required to surrender their rental flats to the authority on obtaining HOS flats. Since the beginning of 1985, 3 500 flats have been