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A farmer tends to his crops in Kwu Tung North. Photo: Dickson Lee

Farmers evicted under new town project can continue livelihood on allocated public land but not build homes, Hong Kong officials say

  • Policy draws complaints from affected families, with development authorities accused of being insincere about helping them maintain their lifestyle

Farmers and their families who get evicted under a new town project will be allowed to continue their livelihoods elsewhere on designated plots but will not be able to live there, Hong Kong’s development officials said on Tuesday.

This was despite mounting calls to allow such residents, who live in squatter homes and tend crops daily, to keep their existing lifestyle.

“The government has no such relocation policy allowing farmers to live and toil in the same place ... Because land is scarce,” Permanent Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said.

New town development ‘killing family farms’ in Hong Kong, affected residents say

The comments were made during a meeting of the Legislative Council’s development panel, where officials were unable give a timeline for the proposed rail link connecting two planned new towns in the northeastern New Territories to the city centre.

The government announced last week it would push ahead with the decade-old Fanling North and Kwu Tung North development plan, expected to displace 445 households, including many families living in squatter homes.

Squatter homes are demolished in a Kwu Tung North village in Sheung Shui. Photo: Felix Wong

At least 30 farming households facing eviction have discussed relocation plans with the authorities. On Monday they complained to the media that they were offered only 18 sites, which were too remote, small and on hill slopes, and they would not be allowed to build residential huts on the sites.

This led to several pan-democratic lawmakers questioning development officials on the matter.

Civic Party lawmaker Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu said: “[The affected families] only hope they can first be relocated before the project begins and be allowed to live and farm at the same place.

“Such requests are not excessive at all. But the government has not shown any sincerity in solving their problems.”

Such requests are not excessive at all. But the government has not shown any sincerity in solving their problems
Alvin Yeung, Civic Party

According to Linn, the families would be allowed to farm and build new homes in areas they relocate to, provided they find private land for themselves. Those who move to allocated government land will be allowed to farm there but not build homes.

Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun said the government’s policy was that farmers could stay overnight in shelters on their farms during the harvest season, but not in structures meant to accommodate entire families for the long term.

Among such types of shelter are the 150 sq ft dormitories planned for an agricultural park in south Kwu Tung, but the completion date for the buildings remains unknown, drawing more complaints from farmers.

Lawmakers also expressed concerns about traffic conditions for the two new towns.

Hong Kong to push ahead with controversial decade-old plan to build two new towns

Wong said the proposed North Link rail line project was led by the Transport and Housing Bureau, which would need time to come up with solid construction dates. He added that work on the rail link should be aligned with the building phases of public housing projects in the new towns.

Lai Cheuk-ho, project manager at the Civil Engineering and Development Department’s north development office, said one of the stations on the proposed link – Kwu Tung – would be built first to connect to an existing rail line. He said the station launch would be in time for the first residents of Kwu Tung North new town.

The two new towns are slated to offer 21,000 flats under a first phase to be completed in 2026. The entire development will yield 71,800 flats – 70 per cent of which are marked for public housing – and accommodate about 188,100 residents by 2031.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Farmers told they can work, but not live, on public land
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