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Carrie Lam
Hong KongPolitics

Forcibly taking back privately leased plots and farmland for housing ‘would backfire’, Carrie Lam says

Chief executive rejects call to invoke lease regulations and brushes aside allegations of collusion with property developers

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam speaks at the Legislative Council question and answer section. Photo: Sam Tsang
Kimmy Chung

Hong Kong’s leader on Thursday rejected calls for the government to forcibly take back privately leased land and farm plots to use for housing development, saying it could backfire. 

Grilled at the Legislative Council, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor brushed aside allegations of collusion with property developers, as she pledged to consider the public good over vested interests.

“You do not need to worry whether we have the sincerity, courage or determination … I have no responsibility to safeguard the vested interests,” Lam said, responding to a question by lawmaker Alice Mak Mei-kuen.

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Mak, from the Federation of Trade Unions, had questioned the government’s decisiveness and courage in tackling the housing problem. Lam said: “In my governance ideology, there are no words for ‘vested interests’ – only ‘public interest’.”

A government-appointed task force recently kicked off a public consultation on 18 options for easing the space-starved city’s worsening housing shortage, with development of the 170-hectare Fanling golf course – one of the suggestions put forward – at the centre of the debate. The course is home to the exclusive Hong Kong Golf Club.
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Community groups insist the course should be razed to build housing, while vested interests, including about 2,000 rich and influential club members, oppose that.

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