PUBLIC housing tenants will have lifts repaired and complaints about electricity and water answered within an hour, under new Housing Department pledges. A 24-hour hotline service will be set up for tenants to make complaints or suggestions. The Director of Housing, Fung Tung, said the performance pledge covered 10 aspects, which would all be monitored by the department. In addition to water and electricity supply problems and lift breakdowns, they include applications for rental housing, domestic tenancy matters, cleansing and security services, sales of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats, letting of commercial premises and payments of domestic removal allowance to tenants. ''Training courses have been provided to more than 7,000 staff to help establish new standards of courtesy and helpfulness,'' he said. The department will also set up customer liaison groups to collect feedback from clients about the problems of clearance operations and the HOS applications and procedures. However, the Hongkong People's Council on Public Housing Policy claimed the performance pledge was meaningless. Council chief secretary Virginia Ip Chiu-ping said: ''The pledges do not bring any improvement to public housing services because they are current practice.'' Mr Fung said general inquiries about applications for rental housing would be attended to within 20 minutes and vetting interviews within 30 minutes of the appointed time. But Ms Ip said: ''That is the practice they carry out now. In this performance pledge they have done nothing to make an improvement or shorten the waiting period, but are actually giving an excuse for their staff to slow down efficiency.'' Although the department had agreed to look into the problems of the suspension of electricity and water supply within an hour, she said it did not make any promise about when the supply would resume. ''They only promise to inspect the problem, but give no guarantee they will start work on it immediately,'' she said. Mr Fung said the success of the performance pledge would require the understanding and co-operation of tenants and the public. ''The department welcomes any comments and suggestions on the way in which these and other services can be improved,'' he said.