Hong Kong rural authority chief refutes claims villagers abused city’s small-house policy
Kenneth Lau Ip-keung says research findings are unfair and unsubstantiated
Hong Kong rural authority head Kenneth Lau Ip-keung on Friday rebutted research findings that indicated villagers had been abusing the government’s small-house policy.
He called the study by the Liber Research Community unfair and unsubstantiated, and said officials should work on reforming the policy rather than pointing the finger at rural residents.
Hong Kong’s small-house policy allows indigenous male residents of old villages in the New Territories to build a village house once they reach 18 years old. Entitled villagers can obtain land from the government for the house by paying a discounted or zero land premium. But the policy has drawn much criticism in recent years over cases in which it was being abused for profit.
The study found that close to a quarter of all small houses built over the last four decades were suspected to have been illegally sold to developers through secret contracts.
But Lau, the chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, a government-recognised advisory body on rural affairs, said “the study just jumped to that conclusion from the land ownership and building designs”.
He accused the community of putting forward unsubstantiated claims.