Letters | Why Hong Kong must let Beijing take on vested interests behind housing and other shortages

Hong Kong’s many critical shortages, including in social safety nets, affect livelihoods. Left unsolved, these can cause instability and even threaten long-term security

Hong Kong housing

Letters

Published: 6:40am, 8 May 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

I refer to the article by Pamela Tin (“Hong Kong has been uniquely unable to fix its doctor shortage. Why?”, April 29). Nobel laureate Paul Krugman famously quipped that health care left to its own devices (to free markets) just does not work.

However, doctor shortages are not the only shortages that Hong Kong faces. There are also shortages for housing, affordable private education, retirement funds and social safety net funding. All these shortages affect livelihoods and our society’s stability and well-being. To be clear, these shortages are man-made; preserved and exacerbated by the vested interest groups which are politically linked.

Take housing, our top problem. Although Hong Kong has ample land, 40 per cent of it comprises country parks, and only about 7 per cent is used for housing. The suggestions to build homes in water pipes or above the cargo terminal in Kwai Chung or insisting on joint development of farmland will only create scarcity and increase prices.

Hong Kong’s housing crisis, in my opinion, is the result of the property tycoons influencing policies, using the preservation of Hong Kong’s capitalist system and free markets as a pretext not to solve it.

However, what Hong Kong does not have a shortage of is consultants, steering committee groups, think tanks and advisory bodies. We also do not have a shortage of funds or reserves.

Sometimes, the blame is shifted onto mainlanders taking up resources or the low interest rates or the dollar peg.

The narrative is often twisted, such as how Hong Kong’s ageing population is blamed on low fertility rates and increased life expectancy, hence the private insurance sector promotes more private saving plans. Yet the causes of low fertility rates because young couples cannot afford to marry and have children are: unaffordable housing, unaffordable child care or health care, scant social safety nets, and fiscal prudence championed by the private sector at the expense of the public sector.

03:23

Why car park ownership is big business in Hong Kong

Many Hongkongers have emigrated to Britain to enjoy the lower cost of education and health care – which the British government, for stability, funds through higher taxation. In Hong Kong, we continue to promote ourselves as a low-tax jurisdiction with few social safety nets and wonder why are our young people are emigrating and our population ageing.

I hope Beijing strongly reins in the vested interest groups here. Livelihood matters left unsolved can cause instability and even threaten national security. Those who intentionally create shortages in housing or elsewhere are a threat to Hong Kong’s long-term security.

Bernard E.S. Lee, Tsuen Wan

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