Hong Kong government unveils HK$10.5 billion plan to repair old residential buildings and lifts
- The scheme is to address social needs, not to ‘ease social tension’, says Development Bureau chief
- Over 6,800 buildings in the city are 50 years old or more
The government will launch a HK$10.5 billion (US$1.3 billion) package for property owners to repair 5,000 old buildings across the city and replace 8,000 lifts in them.
The generous scheme, announced on Friday by the Development Bureau, was to address social needs, considering the popular demand for similar past initiatives, and was “not [aimed] to ease social tension”, said bureau chief Michael Wong Wai-lun. “But if it helps in the end, it’s a good thing to our community.”
The sum comprises four initiatives dedicated to building repairs, as over 6,800 buildings, or 20 per cent of the total private residential blocks in Hong Kong, are 50 years old or above. The situation is expected to worsen in the coming years.
The first is the expansion of the existing scheme “Operation Building Bright 2.0”, launched in 2017, for private residential buildings aged 40 to 49 years. With inspection notices issued by the Buildings Department, owners could apply for the HK$3 billion fund.
The 2017 scheme covered buildings aged only 50 years or above.
It is expected that a total of 5,000 old buildings would start to be repaired by 2025, double the number from 2017.
The second scheme, which is an expansion of an existing one that subsidises property owners to replace old lifts in their premises, involves HK$2 billion, and is expected to result in the installation of 8,000 new lifts by 2025.
The government is trying to seek support from the elderly and grass roots, but money simply cannot solve the city’s bigger problems
The two remaining schemes are a HK$3.5 billion subsidy on fire safety enhancement measures, such as installation of automatic sprinklers, and provision of fire doors, and an extra HK$2 billion grant for elderly owners to repair their buildings.
Wong said his bureau would seek funding approval from the Legislative Council in the first half of 2020. “Some political parties are criticising us for not going far enough. For example, they want the maintenance scheme to cover buildings aged 30 years. But I think it’s reasonable that our proposal will get support from Legco in the end”.
Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan Siu-kin, however, said he would only give his backing after the government responded to the protesters’ five demands, including the setting up of an independent inquiry into alleged police use of excessive force in protests.
“The government is trying to seek support from the elderly and grass roots, but money simply cannot solve the city’s bigger problems,” he said.
Hong Kong’s rising number of aged buildings need facelift
“Operation Building Bright 1.0” was first launched in 2009, investing a total of HK$3.5 billion to carry out building repair works and increase job opportunities. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, then Secretary for Development, was in charge.
The initiative, launched a year after the Asian financial turmoil to boost the economy, ended in 2012, and was relaunched by Lam herself again in her maiden policy address in 2017.
