土地運用厚待原居民 不利解決香港房屋問題

<轉載自2012年10月18日 明報 社評>

 

行政長官梁振英昨日到立法會闡述管治理念及施政方向，談到多種關係和多個問題，更表明「要花兩年時間遏止香港社會發展落後的趨勢，然後再花兩三年時間重拾上升軌迹」；他強調要全力處理四大深層次問題，包括房屋、貧窮、人口老化及環境，為未來的社會發展方向初步定調。這個「2年加3年」及「四大問題」的說法，突顯他任內的工作規劃時間表及框架，市民日後大可按此檢視梁班子的工作表現。

梁班子上任以來，民望低迷，但部分工作成果還是值得肯定的。例如社福界長期爭取設立貧窮線，梁振英已經表明會制定有國際公信力和社會認受性的貧窮線，以準確了解香港的貧窮情况，並協助引導政府的政策方向，這對做好扶貧工作是有積極作用的。

但令人失望的是，市民非常關注的樓市問題，政府至今未能拿出解救方案。梁振英昨日表明，目前樓價及租金與市民購買力脫節，政府會透過短、中、長期措施處理問題，不過具體政策欠奉，3個月後施政報告時，必須有所交代。

事實上，梁振英昨日形容房屋問題是他施政的重中之重，市民對他的期望亦相當大，社會上，不少人都認同房屋問題的癥結在於供不應求，根源則在土地供應短缺；然而，實情是否如此？我們提出這個質疑，其中一個原因是禁區邊境開放了超過2000公頃土地，扣除綠化保育地帶，只有110公頃建屋地帶，但全數撥作「鄉村式發展」，即是只供原居民建丁屋。政府一方面聲稱土地荒，另一方面又如此厚待原居民，不禁令人懷疑政府有否善用土地？政府有否過分照顧原居民的利益而犧牲非原居民的利益？在土地運用這個重大議題上，究竟梁振英政府如何平衡香港整體及長遠發展的利益？

應訂取締劏房時間表

劏房是另一個棘手的房屋問題，香港以先進國際城市自居，但據政府分析，卻有多達3.5萬戶（約7.1萬人）居於各類板間房及劏房，居住環境惡劣，被視為現代寮屋、香港之恥。我們認為，政府有責任在一定年期內取締劏房，正如當年港府決心清拆寮屋區一樣，以改善市民的基本居住環境。
 

Editorial

Land Use

 

YESTERDAY Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying talked about his ideas of government in the legislative chamber. He touched upon many relationships and many questions, declaring, "We ought to use two years to arrest the tendency towards slow social development and use three years to return it to the upward trend." He emphasised that the government ought to try its utmost to deal with serious, deep-rooted problems in four areas - housing, poverty, population ageing and the environment - so as to determine tentatively the direction of Hong Kong's social development.

 

The Leung administration has remained quite unpopular since it was sworn in, but it has done what deserves recognition. The following is an example. Social workers have long demanded that the government set a poverty line. Leung has now declared it will set a poverty line that appears creditable to the rest of the world and acceptable to society so that it will have an accurate understanding of poverty in the territory. This would help the government orient its policies and go some way towards alleviating poverty.

However, it is most disappointing that the government has yet to come up with any plan to deal with the property market problem, which is a grave public concern. Yesterday Leung said property prices and rents were way out of line with citizens' purchasing power and the government would take short-, mid- and long-term measures to tackle this problem, but he was less than specific. When he delivers his first policy address (in three months), he ought to tell the public what the government will actually do.

Yesterday Leung described housing as the most important of the government's important tasks. Citizens have high expectations of him. Many believe the crux of the problem is that demand has outstripped supply and its root cause is that land is in short supply. But is this the case? A reason why we have asked this question is that, though 2,000 hectares of Frontier Closed Area (FCA) land will become available, the places where housing can be produced will cover only 110 hectares. The rest will be reserved for "greening" and conservation. Furthermore, all the FCA land for housing development will be used for "rural development" - for building indigenous New Territories (NT) inhabitants' small houses. While it says land is scarce, the government is awfully generous towards indigenous NT inhabitants. This being the case, people cannot but doubt the government would put land to good use. Is the government so excessively eager to look after indigenous NT inhabitants' interests that it would sacrifice other Hong Kong citizens'? In dealing with the important question of land use, how does it propose to strike a balance conducive to Hong Kong's overall and long-term development?

"Flat ripping" is another thorny problem of housing. Hong Kong calls itself a sophisticated world city, but government statistics show as many as 35,000 households (about 71,000 people) live in subdivided or partitioned flats. Their living conditions are extremely poor. "Ripped flat" cubicles are seen as a shame to Hong Kong as squatter settlements were. In our view, the government has a duty to end flat subdivision in a specified number of years (as the Hong Kong British government had all squatter dwellings demolished with great determination) so as to improve citizens' basic living conditions.

明報社評 2012.10.18﹕土地運用厚待原居民 不利解決香港房屋問題

行政長官梁振英昨日到立法會闡述管治理念及施政方向，談到多種關係和多個問題，更表明「要花兩年時間遏止香港社會發展落後的趨勢，然後再花兩三年時間重拾上升軌迹」；他強調要全力處理四大深層次問題，包括房屋、貧窮、人口老化及環境，為未來的社會發展方向初步定調。

梁班子上任以來，民望低迷，但部分工作成果還是值得肯定的。例如社福界長期爭取設立貧窮線，梁振英已經表明會制定有國際公信力和社會認受性的貧窮線，以準確了解香港的貧窮情况，並協助引導政府的政策方向，這對做好扶貧工作是有積極作用。

但令人失望的是，市民非常關注的樓市問題，政府至今未能拿出解救方案。梁振英昨日表明，目前樓價及租金與市民購買力脫節，政府會透過短、中、長期措施處理此問題。不過具體政策欠奉，3個月後施政報告時，須有交代。

梁振英昨日形容房屋問題是他施政的重中之重，市民對他的期望亦相當大，不少人同意房屋問題的癥結是供不應求，根源是土地供應短缺。然而，實情是否如此？我們提出這個質疑，原因之一是禁區邊境開放了超過2000公頃土地，扣除綠化保育地帶，只有110公頃建屋地帶，但全數撥作「鄉村式發展」，即是只供原居民建丁屋。政府一方面聲稱土地荒，另一方面又如此厚待原居民，不禁令人懷疑政府有否善用土地？政府有否過分照顧原居民的利益而犧牲非原居民的利益？在土地運用這個重大議題上，究竟梁振英政府如何平衡香港整體及長遠發展的利益？

 

劏房是另一個棘手的房屋問題。香港以先進國際城市自居，但據政府分析，多達3.5萬戶（約7.1萬人）居於各類板間房及劏房，居住環境惡劣，被視為現代寮屋、香港之恥。我們認為，政府有責任在一定年期內取締劏房，如當年港府決心清拆寮屋區，以改善市民的基本居住環境。