$20m jolt for better housing
Tertiary institutions and professional bodies will be invited to draw on a $20 million fund under a proposal seeking ideas to improve public housing.
Details would be worked out in the next two months and be tabled for the Housing Authority's building committee, a spokesman said.
The fund is among 50 recommendations sought by the authority in response to a series of scandals involving short pilings.
The spokesman said the fund would take applications from researchers at tertiary institutions.
To be eligible researchers must focus on the design of public housing, building methods and materials.
The spokesman denied the fund initiative was needed because of a lack of in-house talent.
'There's much expertise in tertiary institutions. The expertise is already there and it will be more efficient to try to capitalise on it,' he said.
Hong Kong Institute of Architects president Patrick Lau Sau-shing welcomed the research fund, but said the annual amount of $20 million was too small.
He also urged the authority to extend the scope of the fund to cover those doing housing policy research in a bid to overcome 'directionless' development policies.
'One day, the Government says it will build more rental housing, but then they say more Home Ownership Scheme housing should be provided,' said Professor Lau, who is also a member of the authority. 'We have different figures every day.'
