'Govt Ignoring Brownfields To Push Reclamation'

A member of the Liber Research Community has accused the government of ignoring available brownfield sites to create a land shortage scenario in order to push reclamation and the infringement of country parks as solutions to end the city's housing crisis.

Brian Wong said there are a total of 1,300 hectares of brownfield sites in the New Territories.

"That is around 1 percent of the entire area of Hong Kong. If this important source of land supply is not taken into account fully, then it will be a great waste to the Hong Kong society," he said.

"And making an impression that we do not have any more land supply, so that we have to reclaim from the sea or even take parts of the country parks to build housing.'

The government had said that a large number of the brownfield sites are scattered, and because of that they have not been included in any future development plans.

Wong said they carried out a study two months back and found that most of the brown fields ignored by the government are not scattered and have road access.