'New trust can't serve as funding dodge'

An Antiquities Advisory Board member in charge of the city's semi-official heritage trust has warned the government against washing its hands of its conservation responsibilities by setting up a trust to fund the renovation of private historic buildings.

Professor Ho Puay-peng, chairman of the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust Council, a statutory body tasked with promoting both tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Hong Kong, spoke out in response to the Antiquities Advisory Board's public consultation document.

It proposes creating a trust specifically for historic buildings which would promote public participation and raise funds from non-governmental sources. The suggestion stemmed from a government-commissioned study in 2011, which recommended setting up a self-financing trust with seed money of HK$900 million.

"My initial opinion is that it's not going to work if it's to take over the government's renovation or revitalisation projects," said Ho, who is also the director of Chinese University's Centre for Architectural Heritage Research.

At present, the Development Bureau subsidises the maintenance of privately owned graded historic buildings with a cap at HK$1 million each. It also runs a scheme to revitalise government-owned buildings.

Last year, there were 105 declared monuments in Hong Kong, and 917 graded historic buildings of which 714 were privately owned, although this is subject to an ongoing reassessment.

Given these figures, Ho believed the 2011 study had underestimated the annual running costs of a new heritage trust, which it put at HK$60 million.