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Letters

After working behind closed doors with no published meeting minutes for eight months, the government-appointed Task Force on Land Supply presented to the public a dim sum menu to select land from.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam proclaimed this exercise as a “big debate” through which the public can decide on the sources of land that Hong Kong can draw on to solve its housing problem.
In fact, there is no debate.
The task force has decided on every issue without any public debate. Its members pushed their agenda from within while the public cannot do so.
One member told the media that Hong Kong will need 9,000 hectares of land in all instead of 4,800 hectares, an amount calculated by the government’s long-term 2030 Plus development blueprint, which projected the shortfall at 1,200 hectares. Not realising this member’s dual role as the vice-chairman of a pro-government think tank, the public is easily misled into believing that his opinion and the task force’s are one and the same.
The public has no opportunity to debate the facts and data that drive land demand and supply.
Watch: Why land in Hong Kong is so expensive


‘Useless’ land supply consultation ‘fails to address key concerns’
The task force accepted the 1,200 hectares land shortfall, an assumption that many experts conclude is grossly inflated. A glaring example is planning housing capacity for a population of 9 million, when the Census and Statistics Department has forecast population to peak at 8.22 million in 2043, decreasing to 7.72 million in 2066.

The task force refused to include land supply sources such as land reserved for small housing, short-term land leases and temporary government-assigned land. Yet, it accepted the recommendation of one of its members to include a reservoir for development.
No options in the survey questionnaire were proposed by individuals or organisations outside the task force or the government.
Talk of turning Hong Kong golf course into housing dominates forum

Will Hong Kong’s ‘big debate’ on land just be led by fat cats?
The only action that the public can take is to react to the survey questionnaire, the structure and contents of which had not been debated by the public.
The questionnaire steers readers to choose the easy options which would yield large areas of land to meet the 1,200-hectare requirement: reclamation, the East Lantau Metropolis and development in the New Territories. These three options happen to be what the government advocates. The questionnaire is constructed such that, if the 1,200-hectare criteria is to be met, one has to choose at least one of the above three options.
Rather than a genuine “big debate”, the HK$12 million public engagement effort on land supply is nothing but the usual government public relations show. The public had been consulted. Box checked.
Tom Yam, Lantau



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Hong Kong housing

How Hong Kong’s land supply consultation is really not about public debate on housing

The chair of the Task Force on Land Supply, Stanley Wong Yuen-fai (second right), meets activists protesting against some of its proposals, at the Leighton Hill Community Hall in Happy Valley on June 16. Photo: Winson Wong

A general view of at Plover Cove Reservoir. 08DEC17 SCMP / Winson Wong

Land supply options for public consultation

Freer hand for landowners among think tank’s proposals to boost land supply for homes in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Policy Research Institute also suggested an authority be created to help landlords tackle red tape and even bypass planning rules

Drone aerial view of housings between two low mountains where heat traps up. 30MAR18 SCMP / Roy Issa

Former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang is vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute think tank. Photo: Winson Wong

Public consultation on land supply is doomed to fail, just like the ones before it

Stanley Wong (centre), chairman of the task force on land supply, and Ho Hei-wah (second from left), director of the Society for Community Organisation, visit subdivided flats in Sham Shui Po in late April. Photo: Winson Wong

General view of Fanling Golf Course. 27APR18. SCMP/ Winson Wong

Opinion