Update | RTHK funding rejection puts other over-budget projects in doubt

The future of other expensive projects is in doubt after legislators who halted funding for RTHK's planned new headquarters said they would not readily approve projects that ran over budget.

These include the Central-Wan Chai bypass and a new border crossing in the northeastern New Territories, due to be approved by the legislature's Finance Committee this month and next.

An "unexpected" surge in construction costs which has been blamed for the budget blowouts could also force the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to return to the Legislative Council for more funding to build its venues, although it has said it will not do so.

"Legco is not an automatic teller machine," lawmaker Abraham Razack, of the Business and Professionals Alliance said. "The government's explanation has been inadequate."

And New People's Party deputy chairman Michael Tien Puk-sun said: "We cannot approve funding automatically."

Wong Kwok-hing of the Federation of Trade Unions called for a review of the government's formula for cost estimation.