Opinion | Covid-19, housing, pollution, national security: a wish list for John Lee’s policy address

Hong Kong’s chief executive must announce measures to undo the Gordian knot of the housing crisis, aggressively tackle roadside pollution and move forward on enacting a national security law

He must also set a firm date for ending pandemic restrictions in Hong Kong, if the city is to lure business and talent back from Singapore

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Chief executive John Lee visits businesses in Sham Shui Po on July 30.
Photo: Yik Yeung -man

Published: 9:15am, 1 Aug 2022Updated: 10:45am, 4 Oct 2022

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is set to give his first policy address on October 19. Last week he launched the traditional public consultation exercise seeking input from the community on what subjects he should focus on.

I am sure that, like me, many Hong Kong residents will have a long list of areas where we would like to see improvement. To make the speech a success, both content and presentation need to be powerful. Here are some suggestions.

One item sure to be on everyone’s list is housing. Our deficiencies in this area are a triple whammy: we have some of the most expensive residential properties in the world; the wait for public housing stands at over six years, which is twice our target; the existence of micro flats is a scandal. There is only one way to address the root of these interconnected problems. The government must inject into the market a large number of reasonably sized flats.

This will be controversial: the property cartel has long enjoyed the present system to make exorbitant profits; the middle class has traditionally used home ownership as a store of wealth; and government revenues benefit from high land prices. Undoing this Gordian knot will hurt some powerful vested interests. But the opportunity has never been so good: Lee has the personal support of President Xi Jinping in tackling deep-rooted social problems, and an administration-friendly legislature.

He should take the bull by the horns and announce a very large number of homes and a decent size for raising a family – I recently suggested 200,000 units over five years and a mixture of 500 and 700 sq ft flats. I stand by those suggestions.

A second area where we have the capacity to do a lot better is roadside air pollution. At one time we had a tax regime that heavily favoured electric vehicles and Hong Kong was described as the city with the highest number of Tesla cars per capita in the world.