CY Leung urges public to support 'hard choices' on housing shortage

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has appealed for public support on "hard choices" that must be made to solve the city's acute housing shortage - such as changes to zoning plans or development densities.

Speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong, Leung said the housing problem will get worse if the government does not have residents' backing on these issues.

Leung's warning came as Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po wrote on his blog that officials will seek to increase land supply by considering re-zoning "brown-field" sites haphazardly occupied by warehouses and recycling workshops, and launching a new round of public consultation on the development of Hung Shui Kiu, in the northwest New Territories.

They were elaborating on Leung's January 14 policy address in which he said that the government is "committed to putting an end to the long-standing shortage of land supply".

But Leung's blueprint has caused concern among green groups and academics, including Chinese University air ventilation specialist Professor Edward Ng Yan-yung, who told the South China Morning Post that adding hundreds of thousands of flats to Hong Kong's concrete jungle could intensify the "heat island" effect and raise temperatures.

Without addressing these concerns, Leung said yesterday that increasing land supply requires the support of the entire community. "This will involve some hard choices such as changes to zoning plans or development densities that some people might find hard to accept. If we can't secure support - and secure it quickly - the problem will only get worse," he said.