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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):

Question:

It is learnt that problems such as cracked walls, exposed steel reinforcements and concrete spalling appear in many flats in public housing rental estates, threatening the safety of the tenants and adversely affecting their daily life. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the current number of flats which require repair works because of the above problems, with a breakdown by housing estates;

(b) of the average time taken last year by the Housing Department ("HD") for such repair works; and

(c) whether HD will allow tenants of the relevant flats to transfer to other flats before the commencement of large-scale repair works of this nature; if it will, of the number of tenants who may now apply for transfer?

Reply:

Madam President,

My reply to the three-part question is as follows:

(a) As at 16 April 2003, cracks on walls or ceilings which require concrete mending occurred in 1,133 public rental flats. Breakdown of these cases by estate is shown at the Annex (PDF format).

(b) Mending works on walls or ceilings are usually simple and small-scale involving three separate procedures, namely defect inspection, mending of cracks and touch-up painting. Each process takes one day and the entire process normally takes three days to complete. More complex repair works such as addition of reinforcement bars may take a few days to two weeks depending on actual circumstances.

(c) If the requisite repair works are extensive and may cause inconvenience to the tenant, the Housing Department will transfer the tenant to another flat before repair works commence. Domestic Removal Allowance will be given to the affected tenant. Of the 1,133 flats in need of concrete mending, seven tenants require relocation.

End/Wednesday, April 30, 2003

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