In the midst of Hong Kong’s turmoil, Carrie Lam must prioritise the housing crisis and get tough with property developers
- The chief executive found the political will to introduce the ill-judged extradition bill. Surely her energy would be better expended on securing land in the New Territories for public housing projects, using emergency powers if necessary
But in the midst of the short-term crisis management, and laying the foundation for a long-term resolution, the grievances that have clutched the hearts of so many Hong Kong people also need public attention. None is more pressing than housing – and none is more amenable to such a clear menu of well-considered solutions.
Given the emergency nature of the problem, as has been made clear by the past months of increasingly violent conflict, the government is now justified in using emergency powers to sweep aside the often petty obstacles that stood in the way of addressing these needs.
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An audit of available land – the task force’s covered 18 options – revealed that expeditious development of six New Development Areas in the New Territories would provide 2,500 hectares. In addition, there are 1,300 hectares of brownfield land and a further 1,000 hectares of agricultural land spread through the New Territories.
At the time, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor rejected most of these options because of tedious planning and obstacles to land resumption. These obstacles are mainly related to compensation to the ancestral villagers in the New Territories linked with the powerful Heung Yee Kuk, and with the big property developers who had stealthily, over decades, built up massive and lucrative land banks in the area.
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This was always ludicrous. Not only was the new island likely to cost around HK$1 trillion, it would also take more than a decade to take shape. It was grandiose, and did nothing to solve our community’s housing problems in any politically relevant time frame.
If Lam was willing to cast off all reasonable legislative restraint to ram the deeply unsettling extradition legislation down the public’s throat, then she surely has no excuse for pussy-footing around planning and land resumption obstacles when it comes to tackling the land supply problem. Emergency circumstances call for emergency remedies.
So she should park her grand new Lantau Tomorrow Vision, and instead roll up her sleeves to fast-track the resumption of green and brown land through the New Territories. If it takes changes in planning rules, then do it. If it takes money to buy off villagers, then do it.
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Our property developers should be immediately instructed to use or lose their land banks. If they have common sense, and any recognition of the deep resentment caused by their gouging of Hong Kong’s wealth over the past two decades, they might even consider gifting to the government some of their land banks for urgently needed public housing.
If some good is to come out of the catastrophic past six months, then it must start with housing, and it must start fast.
David Dodwell researches and writes about global, regional and Hong Kong challenges from a Hong Kong point of view