| News
Stories: |  |
Click-on these
handy "jump links" to quickly access the news item
you're looking
for. 1.
Chief says sorry for mainland homes plan 2.
When a borderline home plan falls down 3.
Legco panel blasts officials on flats freeze 4.
Housing meeting crumbles into chaos
1. Chief says sorry for mainland homes plan
The head of the Housing Society said yesterday a controversial proposal to build
subsidised homes in Guangdong had been shelved, and apologised for causing "unnecessary"
confusion. Chairman Timothy Chung Shui-ming, who is also an Executive Council
member, said he regretted the controversy, but insisted the idea to build homes
for Hong Kong people on the mainland had not been dropped because of government
pressure. Mr Chung was speaking after the decision was made during an emergency
meeting of the society's executive committee. He had earlier cut short a mainland
trip after the proposal was attacked by government officials. "I'm regretful for
causing some unnecessary misunderstanding over the Government's housing policy,"
said Mr Chung, who unveiled the idea on Wednesday. "The Government has taken a
clear stance on this, that we should not proceed with the study as it is not advantageous
to do so." But he added: "I personally have not felt any pressure from the Government.
Listening to the Government's opinions does not mean we have lost our independence
or autonomy." Mr Chung said the matter would not harm his, or the society's, relationship
with the administration. The proposal could be revived in five years if circumstances
changed. The Government welcomed the decision, saying it "reflects the Housing
Society's full understanding of the community's concern over the issue". [Source:
SCMP, 11 September 2001] 2.
When a borderline home plan falls down
"It is the most spectacular farce a government can produce," said housing affairs
critic Ho Hei-wah, referring to the clash between the quasi-governmental Housing
Society and the Government over the society's now-aborted proposal to enter the
mainland property market. Some analysts say this episode, which has seen unprecedented
high-profile criticism by the Tung administration of a plan put forward by one
of its own Executive Councillors, has also indicated the diminishing political
relevance of the quasi-cabinet. Property stocks were put in the firing line -
the Hang Seng properties sub-index shed 3.69 per cent last Thursday, prompting
the Government to hastily release a statement that night expressing disapproval
of the plan. Political analyst Professor Lau Siu-kai, associate director of Chinese
University's Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, said the saga showed that Executive
Council members had become more "politically irrelevant" in the Tung era. "Either
the councillors' advice has not been listened to or they have simply been kept
in the dark about government policies," said Professor Lau. "As the close advisers
of Mr Tung, they do not seem to fully understand what Mr Tung is thinking. Professor
Lau also said senior housing officials seem to have been sidelined in the high-level
decision-making process on such issues, which he believed had now been centralised
in the hands of Mr Tung, Mr Tsang and Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung.
Dr Li said: "It seems the Government's housing policies are in a mess. We have
too many different organisations responsible for housing. It is not always clear
who is responsible for what." The Housing Authority's main responsibility is for
public housing. It builds low-rental flats for needy families and runs the now
suspended Home Ownership Scheme to build flats to sell to middle-income families.
Evolving from the former Resettlement Department in the 1950s, the authority is
a statutory body, with the Housing Department as its executive arm. By contrast,
the Housing Society is a non-profit-making organisation. It was established in
1948 to help meet the needs of grassroot groups at a time when public housing
was not a high priority for the then-colonial government. In 1951, it was given
legal status as a corporation and has the power to develop and invest in property
in Hong Kong. Like the Housing Authority, the society is also granted cheap land
by the Government to build low-rental flats for lower-income groups. Modelling
itself on the Housing Authority's Home Ownership Scheme, the society also runs
a scheme to sell flats to middle-income families. Since the late 1960s, it has
expanded its remit to help the Government with urban-renewal projects. The society
took a bigger role in housing amid the overheated property market of the 1990s,
when it was appointed by the Government to manage two schemes to build upmarket
flats and offer housing loans to so-called sandwich-class families - the higher-income
group who were too rich to apply for public housing but not rich enough to buy
private flats. Both schemes have since been scrapped, following the collapse in
property prices which made private flats more affordable. The society is now managing
another government-housing loan scheme - the home-starter scheme - for first-time
home buyers. But Mr Chung yesterday denied that the society's role was diminishing
and said it still needed to cater to the housing needs of the elderly. He added
the society would study entering the mainland market at a later stage. Co-ordinating
the public and private housing sectors and formulating overall housing policies
for Hong Kong should be the job of yet another body - the Government's Housing
Bureau. Mr Tung's now-scrapped target of building 85,000 flats a year was set
after a study by Executive Council convenor Leung Chun-ying. Mr Leung was appointed
by Mr Tung in 1997 to spearhead a new direction in housing policy. Dr Ivan Choy
Chi-keung, of City University's division of social studies, said the housing-policy
formulation process was so confusing that people could not easily follow what
the Government was doing. He called for urgent reform. It is against this background
that a review is being conducted by the Government. Headed by the Chief Secretary,
the review is looking into the roles of the Housing Authority, Housing Society,
and Housing Bureau in the formulation of housing policies and the relationships
between these different bodies. It was ordered by Mr Tung last year at the height
of the piling scandals and was supposed to be completed by April this year. But
the work was disrupted by the resignation of Anson Chan Fang On-sang as chief
secretary. [Source:
SCMP, 11 September 2001] 3.
Legco panel blasts officials on flats freeze
Legislators yesterday passed a resolution condemning the Government for not consulting
Legco and the Housing Authority before announcing a decision to freeze sales of
subsidised flats for 10 months. At a stormy special housing panel meeting, one
lawmaker walked out after demanding the resignation of Secretary for Housing Dominic
Wong Shing-wah. It also emerged at the meeting that Housing Authority members
could block the plan at a meeting next month after Mr Wong pointed out that Chief
Executive Tung Chee-hwa had not used his legal powers to impose the moratorium.
He said at the meeting that Mr Tung had not used Section 9 of the Housing Ordinance,
which allows him to give direction to the authority "as he thinks fit, either
generally or in any particular case". Ip Kwok-him, of the Democratic Alliance
for the Betterment of Hong Kong, said the Government had "disrespected" the authority.
"I would not be so angry if Tung had used his power under Section 9 because he
could have done whatever he wanted and we would have to accept it. But why are
they not using it? I definitely will follow up on this matter," he said. It is
understood most authority members back the freeze. The authority's home ownership
committee will have a brain-storming session on the issue on Thursday and a full
council meeting is due on October 22. [Source:
SCMP, 11 September 2001] 4.
Housing meeting crumbles into chaos
The government's housing policy deteriorated from shambles into a farce yesterday
with calls for the Secretary for Housing to resign, a walk-out during a meeting
of the Legislative Council's Housing Panel and a backdown by the Housing Society
over plans to build flats in the mainland. The Secretary for Housing Dominic Wong
Shing-wah bore the brunt of the legislators' fury as he tried to explain why the
government had failed to consult the Housing Authority and lawmakers over the
decision to freeze the sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats. Frederick Fung
Kin-kee, chairman for the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, urged
Mr Wong to resign if the property market did not improve after the 10-month freeze.
He later walked out in disgust, in the middle of the meeting, arguing that the
authority's autonomy had been undermined and in protest at Mr Wong's failure to
accept his 10-month deadline. ``The government wants to teach the authority a
lesson for not surrendering to property developers,'' he said. Democrat Szeto
Wah mocked the government by quoting Premier Zhu Rongji's remark on Hong Kong
last week, when Mr Zhu said: ``We can't always remain at discussion without decision,
decision without execution.'' Mr Szeto sneered: ``This is in complete contrast
to what Premier Zhu said about Hong Kong being been keen on `discussion without
decision'.The government now made a decision without discussion.'' Frontier legislator
and unionist Lee Cheuk-yan also waded into the debate, saying the government lacked
the power to intervene in the Housing Authority, which enjoyed autonomy under
the Housing Ordinance. But Mr Wong denied the government had adopted a ``high-handed''
attitude. ``The housing policies have always been decided by the government. The
Housing Authority is only the executive organisation ... therefore the Housing
Authority should not overrule any government policy,'' he said. Vice-chairman
of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) and Housing Authority
member Ip Kwok-him agreed that the government had shown no respect for the authority
in making its decision. ``I am worried that the suspension might serve as a stepping
stone for its total scrapping,'' he said. Mr Wong responded by saying the Housing
Authority members had other formal channels to express their opinions, including
the authority's meetings, which were attended by officials from the Housing Bureau.
However, he still failed to sway the majority of the legislators who later passed
a resolution, by six to five, condemning the freeze and the lack of consultation.
DAB's Chan Yuen-han, who had severely criticised the government, did not vote.
In a separate development, the Housing Society caved in to pressure from the government
and announced yesterday it was abandoning plans to build flats on the mainland.
The announcement by chairman Chung Shui-ming at the end of a two-hour emergency
meeting of the society's executive committee, came just five days after the plan
was made public. Mr Chung said the plan was scrapped because of strong opposition
from the public and the government, not because it violated the society's constitution.
Despite insisting the plan was part of normal business expansion, Mr Chung expressed
deep regret over the ``misunderstandings it has caused over the housing policy''.
Asked whether the backdown was a surrender to government pressure, Mr Chung replied:
``I personally did not feel any pressure at all. ``As the society has made its
opinion very clear, there is no point in pursuing the plan in this stage. It will
not benefit anyone to continue ... because it does not meet the public's expectations
of the Housing Society.'' He rejected a warning by Chief Secretary for Administration
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen that the plan violated the society's constitution, which
requires it to serve only the Hong Kong public. ``I don't see the society restricted
from serving the local community with services outside Hong Kong,'' he said, adding
the plan might be resurrected in a few years' time. Mr Chung admitted the government's
strong response may have been prompted by a lack of communication, adding that
he was unable to explain the idea to officials because he began a mainland tour
a day after he revealed the plan to the media last Wednesday. But the incident
did not hamper the close working relationship between the society and the government,
he said. A government spokesman welcomed the decision, saying it reflected the
society's understanding of the community's concern. Ho Hei-wah, director of the
Society for Community Organisation, said the pressure group was not opposed to
the proposal of ``going north''. ``What we oppose is the society's intention to
be a cross-border property developer,'' said Mr Ho, adding that he supported building
subsidised housing for elderly and low-income families on the mainland. Yesterday's
decision was endorsed by 12 members of the Housing Society's executive committee,
one of which was the Secretary for Housing. A Chinese University of Hong Kong
survey in June this year found that about 23.5 per cent of the 1,009 respondents
expressed a desire to buy a flat on the mainland in two years. A further 12.6
per cent already owned a mainland flat. Meanwhile, Chinese University Professor
Lau Siu-kai warned the halt to HOS sales, which by-passed the legislature and
the Chief Executive's think-tank, illustrated there was a process of disintegration
in Tung Chee-hwa's ruling alliance. He said the incident revealed chaotic government
policies. ``Our government has left out the legislature, the land and housing
committees and its top aides in deciding to put a halt to the HOS. There is serious
damage [here] resulting from such a concentration of power, which has eroded people's
confidence very much,'' Professor Lau said, adding that Mr Tung had dealt an embarrassing
blow to Mr Chung and Mr Cheng. Professor Lau said while the long-term benefits
of halting sale of the HOS had yet to be seen, the shortcomings were already being
seen. ``We can't see the property price has been improved or people's confidence
been restored. But [this] has damaged the position of some statutory bodies and
people. [Source:
HK-iMail, 11 September 2001]
|  |
|
