No censure for Tsang over canned housing deal
Legislators have again demanded that the shelved Home Ownership Scheme be revived, but they failed to pass a motion expressing grave dismay at the chief executive's failure to help people buy property.
Every legislator who spoke in a four-hour debate on the motion yesterday agreed the government should resume the subsidised housing scheme which once helped people squeezed out of the private property market to buy flats.
'The public and this council have long since forged the consensus that the government should resume the construction of Home Ownership Scheme ... but then [Chief Executive] Donald Tsang Yam-kuen still turns a deaf ear and disregards public opinion,' Democrat James To Kun-sun, who moved the motion, said.
'I really do not understand why the chief executive refuses to listen to the opinion of the public and lawmakers. Since 2007 legislators have called on the government to resume the scheme by passing a non-binding motion seven times.'
The scheme was halted in 2002 as part of efforts to rejuvenate the then-battered property market. But property prices recently passed their previous peak, set in 1997.
Several speakers said the government's measures including putting up more land lots for sale by auction and introducing a special stamp duty to curb speculation had failed to cool down the property market.
Transport and Housing secretary Eva Cheng said the government did not want to see a volatile market and was closely monitoring the situation.
