Concrete Analysis | How much longer does Hong Kong have to wait for an integrated housing strategy?

The chief executive promised in the lead up to her election both leadership and brave decisions, and housing is precisely the area in which Hongkongers expect action and initiatives

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Lam’s administration, which has been in office for 12 months, has yet to roll out an integrated housing strategy. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 12:01pm, 22 May 2018Updated: 5:28pm, 22 May 2018

I think it is generally well known that I actively supported Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor during her election campaign and considered that her manifesto sought to address many of the livelihood issues that have vexed Hong Kong over the last few years.

Not least I agreed with her plans to address the entrenched challenges of inadequate housing supply and the issues surrounding choice and affordability that flow from previous failures to resolve these problems.

To be fair, much of the work undertaken by the administration during its first 12 months in office has been to tackle the chief executive’s social agenda and to address inequalities which have been the source of grievance within the community for some time. However, I do not believe that we are going to solve the challenges surrounding housing simply by identifying new possible sources of land supply.

Hong Kong families waiting more than five years for public housing

Indeed I have questioned from the outset the need for a special task force to establish what the options might be and, even more particularly, for the community to be asked to decide as to which of these the government should adopt. I consider that the options are, and have been, evident from the start, namely a combination of reclamation outside the harbour, brownfield conversion and partnership with the private sector. Reclamation has proved a viable option in the past, albeit it will need to be undertaken in less sensitive areas and with due respect for the environment and sustainability.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor meets the media before an Executive Council meeting last week. Photo: Dickson Lee

Addressing the proliferation of brownfield sites is something that the government should have taken on before now as it is a necessity beyond housing and is within their administrative purview. Cooperation with the private sector in securing the release of agricultural land in the New Territories and using this as an opportunity to provide a much more varied mix of housing types, including affordable housing, is clearly part of the way forward with the ultimate sanction of resumption if the development community fails to come to the party.

The chief executive promised in the lead up to her election both leadership and brave decisions and this is precisely the area in which the community expect action and initiatives from her and her team.