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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, in the Legislative Council today (June 4):
Question:
Under the Housing Subsidy Policy, households who have been living in public rental housing or interim housing for 10 years or more are required to declare household income biennially. Households with a household income exceeding the relevant subsidy income limits are required to pay the net rent or licence fee (multiplied by 1.5 or two) plus rates, while those households who choose not to declare their household income have to pay the net rent or licence fee (multiplied by two) plus rates. In addition, according to the Policy on Safeguarding Rational Allocation of Public Housing Resources, households required to pay double net rent plus rates must also declare assets in the next cycle of declaration. If they have net assets which exceed the relevant net asset limits, or choose not to declare assets, they will be required to vacate their public housing flats. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it had reviewed the aforesaid two policies in the past five years, including reviewing if the requirement of making declarations biennially could be relaxed, in order to save administration costs;
(b) of the respective numbers of tenants who paid 1.5 times or double net rent plus rates in each of the past three years; and
(c) of the number of households which, upon their declaration of assets, were transferred to smaller public housing flats due to a reduction in their household size in each of the past three years?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Government's housing policy is to provide public rental housing (PRH) to those who cannot afford private rental accommodation. Such provision is heavily subsidised by public resources. It is necessary for the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) to ensure that the limited housing resources are allocated to needy families. The HA hence implemented the Housing Subsidy Policy (HSP) and the Policy on Safeguarding Rational Allocation of Public Housing Resources (SRA) in 1987 and 1996 respectively to reduce the housing subsidy to households which no longer require assistance. These policies are applicable to households that have been living in PRH for ten years or more, but not to households that consist of members all having attained the age of 60 or all receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. Under the HSP, the PRH tenants concerned are required to declare their household income every two years. Tenants with a household income exceeding two times the Waiting List Income Limits (WLIL) or those who choose not to declare their household income are required to pay 1.5 or two times net rent plus rates. For tenants with a household income exceeding three times the WLIL or those who choose not to declare, in addition to paying two times net rent plus rates, they are also required to declare assets at the next round of declaration under the SRA. Those tenants with net assets value exceeding 84 times of the WLIL or those who choose not to declare assets are required to vacate their flats. In fact, the HA has recovered more than 36,000 PRH flats from tenants paying additional rent since the implementation of the HSP and the SRA.
My reply to the three-part question is as follows:
(a) It is necessary for the HA to implement appropriate measures to ensure the rational allocation of limited public resources. The collection on a regular basis of information about the household income of tenants is very important for such purpose. Therefore, the HA has no intention at the moment to change the two policies mentioned above, including the arrangement requiring tenants concerned to declare their household income every two years.
(b) In each of the past three years, there are about 20,000 households paying 1.5 or two times net rent plus rates.
(c) To ensure the proper use of housing resources and avoid frequent transfers of tenants due to minor changes in family size, the HA has a set of established standards for arranging tenants to transfer to smaller flats upon a decrease in their household size. Elderly households and families with disabled members are exempted from such arrangement.
In the past three years, among tenants who have declared assets under SRA, the number of tenants transferred to smaller PRH flats each year due to a decrease in their household size is as follows:
Year Number of tenants
2007/08 1
2006/07 8
2005/06 12
Total 21
Ends/Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Issued at HKT 13:03
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