Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, at a media session after attending an event this morning (November 30):
 
Reporter: (Questions on construction cost of Light Public Housing)
 
Secretary for Housing: The cost, as I have just said, is not a simple arithmetic of dividing the total cost by number of units. The Light Public Housing and the transitional housing are similar and the costs are similar. Now, the Light Public Housing, we are building taller buildings, much taller than the average height of the transitional housing. They are of 16 to 18 metres (should be storeys) tall. For tall buildings, we have to take care of the wind load, we have to take care of the structure, we have also to provide lifts and escalators to the top floors; and also the electrical and mechanical, water pumps and all the provisions are different. So we are dealing with a very different situation. And I have just explained about the location, the attention is more to the remote site in Lin Tong Mei. The two Tuen Mun sites, although they are smaller in size but we are building much higher, we are building up to 16 to 18 storeys. So, for those sites, we will provide a total of 7 000 units. For the Lin Tong Mei site, we will provide, say, 1 000 units. So, much more units will be produced in these sites of much better locations and one of the Tuen Mun sites is actually next to the light rail station, Ching Chung Station. So it's very convenient and Tuen Mun is what we called extended New Territories area. So it is not really a New Territories area, it's a mature area with more community support and facilities.
 
     We hope that you will support the project. We are trying to help those people who are now in the subdivided units, living in very poor conditions. So we have the need and we have to maintain the speed to go to LegCo (Legislative Council) as soon as possible to get the funding approved. Thank you.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese version of the transcript.)

Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:15

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