In the political platform recently released by Lee Ka-chao, the candidate for the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, he placed the solution of Hong Kong's housing problem in a prominent position. The housing woes of all sectors of Hong Kong society are a test for policymakers. For the next SAR government, how to exert boldness and execution to boldly break the situation and relieve the people's difficulties? Phoenix TV series report "Hong Kong Chief Executive Election Preview" takes you to observe——
Subdivided households, nano buildings, and sky-high price plates have already felt the difficulties and embarrassments of Hong Kong's living environment just by hearing them. From the perspective of people's livelihood and well-being, only by living in peace can we be happy. Housing is the foundation of all life and an element of social stability, and among the deep-seated contradictions in Hong Kong society that we have often mentioned in the past two years, the housing problem should be the most intractable one. Lee Ka-chiu, a candidate for the Hong Kong SAR's chief executive election, also said that housing supply is a key to solving many of Hong Kong's problems.
After announcing his candidacy, he took the lead in visiting districts, visiting households, and in the recently published political platform for his candidacy, he put the solution to the housing problem in the most prominent position. In order to solve the problem of long waiting time for PRH, Li Jiachao proposed a new "PH Advance Upstairs Plan". If the plan is successfully implemented, public housing such as the one that has been built but the infrastructure is not yet fully equipped will be lit up in advance.
As one of the focal points of Lee Ka-chiu's candidacy platform, the "Public Housing Advance Upstairs Plan" allows individual projects, such as one or two public housing buildings to be erected during the construction period, and allowing the public to move in until the completion of complete community facilities such as transportation and shopping, and it is expected to shorten the waiting time of one year to achieve speed, efficiency and quantity. This plan directly confronts the housing anxiety of a large number of citizens under the long-term severe shortage of public housing and the continuous renewal of waiting time.
Housing is difficult, where is the difficulty? The subdivided house, which has been the focus of successive governments, is an extreme microcosm. Can you imagine? Two or three square meters is a so-called shelter, and more than 220,000 people live in such subdivided houses in Hong Kong, and going upstairs is the expectation of many of them.
In a corner of the Lion Rock called Hongmei Valley, there is such a subdivided village.
Walking into the Hongmei Valley, almost all of them are simple residences built of tin, and even if they are so old, some of them are divided into several subdivided houses for rent.
Ms. Huang and her son squeezed into one of the less than 3 square meters. Ms. Huang has trouble with her legs and feet, is a cleaner, and her middle school son is still huddled in the same bed. Out of self-esteem, my son had to take a long detour home every day after school, worried that his classmates would see him.
Ms Wong is illiterate and has already submitted pry housing applications through volunteer help, but is still waiting. Subdivided households like Ms. Huang are the most urgently needed by the government to solve the housing difficulties, but public housing is not the final answer to the difficulties.
Cheung Kwok-kwan, a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, said that in the short term, the government needs to work issues such as transitional housing and rent relief to solve the urgent need. In the long run, Fan Xulitai, a former member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, believes that the "public housing advance plan" is feasible, but the public housing policy that has been implemented for many years has been loopholes, for example, people with certain economic ability still stay in public housing and occupy resources, so the public housing policy as a whole may have to be "operated" and re-planned.
However, the group of housing difficulties is far more than this, the middle class known as the "sandwich layer", whose income exceeds the eligibility for public housing applications, is struggling with the embarrassment of high housing prices and nano buildings.
He Luosheng, director of the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute at Lingnan University, believes that the next SAR government needs to make more pragmatic adjustments in the accuracy of policy formulation, such as the "spicy tax" launched in 2010. In terms of building supply, is there a need for more flexible financial policies? These need to be considered. Housing at different levels has tested the government's decision-making ability, and solving the problem of land supply has been the consensus of all sectors of society for several years. He Luosheng pointed out that on the issue of childcare, for example, the government needs to gather social consensus and show boldness.
From land supply to property market policies, Hong Kong's housing problem is complex, and as a major shortcoming restricting social development, it is always testing the SAR government.
In terms of strengthening land construction and housing construction, Li Jiachao proposed in the election platform to establish a "public housing project action working group" and a "land and housing supply coordination group", respectively, to submit preliminary proposals for accelerating the construction of public housing and integrate the approval process related to land development. In addition, a comprehensive review of "green zones" and "brownfields" will be undertaken to explore their feasibility. Lee Ka-chiu hopes to use these measures to respond to the biggest concerns of Hong Kong citizens by streamlining procedures in a multi-pronged manner to provide more places to live.
It has been some time since the discussion of the spin-off of the Transport and Housing Bureau, and Lee Ka-chiu also proposed in the political platform to reorganize the structure of the SAR government, and in terms of solving the housing problem in Hong Kong, whether this will further enhance the efficiency of the SAR government, we wait and see.
Source: Phoenix TV Zhao Long, Wang Shu Reported by Hong Kong
Edit: Mu Mu