An authority with the power to evict home-owners or order them to keep their homes in good shape is to be created in a new approach to demolish slums.
The Urban Renewal Authority, a bill for which is gazetted today, will also manage the sites it redevelops. The authority has been promised financial help.
The bill says the authority can borrow money from sources other than the Government and can lend money on terms it deems fit.
It can invest money that in any financial year is not immediately required, after approval from the Financial Secretary.
The Government also proposes exempting the authority from land-premium charges and giving it loans for the first few years.
That contrasts with the present Land Development Corporation practice, under which full land premiums, accounting for up to 30 per cent of a project cost, are charged, and it has to be self-financing.
The corporation estimates that waiving such charges could help to save $70 billion over 10 years.
