Mr Tung said the Government would waive rates of up to $2,000 per property next year. Those who pay $500 a quarter in rates will get a $2,000 reduction.

The concession is expected to save ratepayers about $5 billion.

In addition, Housing Authority chairman Dr Cheng Hong-kwan announced a possible one-month rent waiver in December for all public rental tenants to dovetail with the rates concession.

He also said rent levels would continue to be frozen for one more year and the rent review deferred.

The authority would make a decision on the proposed measure at a meeting on October 22. The re-assessment of its commercial tenancies also would be discussed.

Wong Kwun, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and New Territories Public Housing Estate Resident and Shopowners' Organisation, said the rates and rent waiver were concrete initiatives to help grassroots families.

'But in the long run, the Government should cut public tenants' rent,' he said.

Dr Lau Kwok-yu, associate professor of City University's public and social administration department and a Housing Authority member, said: 'The amount that will be saved by low-class and middle-class families will be insignificant. But the concessions will at least bring some comfort.'

Society for Community Organisation chairman Ho Hei-wah said he was disappointed by the Policy Address as it did not do anything to help the poorest people, such as those who lived in partitioned flats.