Recently, the development of the North East New Territories New Development Areas (NENT NDAs) has become the talk of the town. Please let me take this opportunity to explain a few points to give a clear picture of the facts to the community.
First, there has been a serious imbalance in housing supply and demand in Hong Kong over the years. Currently, there are more than 200 000 applicants on the public housing waiting list, and many of them are living in unsatisfactory subdivided flats. Coupled with the fact that private property prices and rents are high, we have to face the reality and increase housing supply as soon as possible. The NENT NDAs will provide about 60 000 residential flats, and 60 per cent will be subsidised housing. As it is an important source of medium- to long-term housing land supply, it is impossible for us to slow down the implementation of the NENT NDAs project.
Second, "no removal and no demolition" is not feasible. In planning the NENT NDAs, we have done our best to minimise the impacts on existing local residents, farmers and business operators. However, "no removal and no demolition" is not practicable. Let’s take Kwu Tung North as an example. We have made reservations for the construction of the Kwu Tung Station on the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and the surrounding area will be developed into a town centre with high development density to facilitate residents’ accessibility. As such, the structures within this area have to be cleared to free up space for development.
Third, based on our preliminary estimate, among the 1 000 or so affected households in the NENT NDAs, many are living in unauthorised squatters or licensed structures built on government land or private agricultural land. People living in these squatters and licensed structures have no title to their properties which are not transferable. It is an established government policy that these squatters and structures are only tolerated temporarily and will be cleared when the land is required for development. As in the past, this is the usual practice in new town development in Hong Kong. We fully appreciate the concern of the residents about removal and demolition, so we have reserved sites for rehousing eligible residents to public rental housing flats within the same district and will also provide special ex-gratia compensation to assist in the relocation of affected residents.
Fourth, some allege that only 6 per cent of the land in the NENT NDAs is set aside for subsidised housing while the rest would be allocated for luxury residential developments. The accusation is distorted and misleading. The fact is that among the approximately 300 hectares of developable land in the NENT NDAs, nearly 30 per cent or about 90 hectares are housing land, and the ratio of public to private housing is about 50-to-50. For the private housing sites, most of them would be designated for medium- to high-density development, which is almost the same as those for public housing. For the NENT NDAs as a whole, only about 1.6 hectares of land would be designated for low-density development because of environmental and transport considerations.
Fifth, the Fanling Golf Course and its peripheral areas have already been included in the Preliminary Feasibility Study on Developing the New Territories North early this year. Various technical and environmental assessments and public engagement activities will be carried out. Given that the study itself would take a few years to complete, the golf course cannot be a replacement option for the NENT NDAs.
Sixth, some accuse the Government of allowing land owners’ application for lease modification (including in-situ land exchange) under the enhanced Conventional New Town Approach, alleging that it is a kind of transfer of benefits to private developers. This accusation has disregarded the common practice of new town development in the past, not to mention the four stringent criteria set by us this time, namely: (1) the site must be lying within an area planned for private development; (2) the site must be no less than 4 000 square metres in area and must be under consolidated ownership; (3) the development must be completed within the time limit set by the Government; and (4) the applicant should offer the tenants/occupants monetary compensation comparable to that offered by the Government. Moreover, the landowner(s) will have to pay the full land premium.
This approach has been adopted in response to the views collected during the public engagement activities conducted in 2012, including those expressed by some pan-democratic Legislative Council (LegCo) Members who strongly opposed the compulsory resumption of private land for auction by the Government, alleging that this would deprive the rights of landowner(s) to develop the land on their own. In fact, allowing this kind of application on the above conditions would expedite housing supply, and would not affect the overall planning or the timely and orderly provision of infrastructure and community facilities. It would also ensure fair treatment to the occupants on the land. At present, there are about 160 hectares of private land in the NENT NDAs. The Government will resume at least 70 per cent of this land for subsidised housing, infrastructure, etc. In fact, if the conditions mentioned above could not be met, private land within the area planned for private development will also be resumed by the Government. Hence the Government is taking the lead in the development of the NENT NDAs.
Seventh, some allege that there are 4 000 hectares of “idle land” readily available for development into hundreds of thousands of flats in Hong Kong. This is a serious misunderstanding. Over the past year or so, in our responses to LegCo questions on many occasions, we have made it very clear that excluding roads or passageways, man-made slopes, land under Temporary Land Allocation and fragmented sites, there remains only some 390 hectares of unleased or unallocated government land zoned "Residential" or "Commercial/Residential" on the statutory plans of Hong Kong. Most of these sites comprise back lanes or narrow strips of land alongside existing developments, and are not suitable for housing development. Details on the locations of these sites have already been uploaded to the Development Bureau’s website for public information. In view of the current shortage of housing land, if any of such idle land is readily available, why would the Government choose a difficult way to find sites for development?
Eighth, some accuse the Government of destroying a quarter of the active agricultural land of Hong Kong. This is absolutely ridiculous. According to the Planning Department, there are about 5 000 hectares of agricultural land in Hong Kong (including active, fallow and deserted agricultural land), but only 28 hectares of active agricultural land would be affected by the NENT NDAs project. In addition, we will introduce measures to assist genuine farmers affected by the development to identify land for agricultural rehabilitation.
For our responses to the above unsubstantiated accusations and rumours, please visit the Development Bureau’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DevelopmentBureau).
Our funding application for $340 million to the LegCo is for the detailed design of advance works and ground investigation in the NENT NDAs so that the first batch of 16 000 housing flats, of which 13 000 would be subsidised housing, could be completed in stages starting from 2023. The main works of the project will not commence before 2018 and further application for funding will still have to be submitted to the LegCo for approval. In the years to come, we will continue to strive for the overall interests of the community and liaise with the affected residents, farmers and business operators on the compensation and rehousing arrangements. I hope that the community and the LegCo Members will understand the situation and support the funding application.
22 June, 2014
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