On 20 January 2020, Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) proposed the 2020-21 corporate plan, the 2019-20 revised budget and the 2020-21 proposed budget, and also issued the financial forecasts for the period between 2021-22 and 2023-24
In 2020-21, the HA will continue to focus its efforts on providing quality homes, promoting sustainable living, optimising and rationalising the use of public resources and enhancing the attractiveness of its commercial properties. Based on these four themes, a total of 52 key activities and 19 key performance indicators have been drawn up for the 2020-21 corporate plan.
The corporate plan and the budgets will be submitted to the Chief Executive for approval. The financial forecasts will also be made available to the Chief Executive for her information.
“The corporate plan is a platform through which the HA directs its work and focuses its efforts to address the challenges of public housing. In 2020-21, the HA will continue to invite the government to provide suitable sites for developing public rental housing (PRH) units and to subsidise flats, with a view to increasing the supply of public housing units,” a spokesman for the HA said.
The HA will explore the feasibility of redeveloping its factory estates for public housing, and will consider making active preparations, with a view to accelerating the sale of about 42,000 unsold flats in 39 estates under the Tenants Purchase Scheme. The HA will also consider putting up as many as 12,000 flats with Home Ownership Scheme and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme for sale in 2020. Additionally, they will also consider further raising the quota of the White Form Secondary Market Scheme in 2020.
As the increased expenditure will be partly offset by the subsidised sale flat receipts, the cash and investment balance of the HA is projected to decrease from about USD43 billion at the beginning of April 2019 to about USD35 billion by the end of March 2024. It is also projected that the HA will still have the necessary financial resources to meet its recurrent expenditure and to implement its current public housing construction programme and maintenance programme during the budget and forecast period. — Construction+ Online
