Slash Red Tape To Fix Housing: Liberal Party

The Liberal Party is calling on the government to reduce red tape so land can be released to build homes more quickly.

Speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong programme, party chairman Tommy Cheung said the SAR desperately needed more housing, but complicated procedures involving multiple departments made building flats more difficult.

Cheung, who's also a member of the Executive Council, says it's time for the Carrie Lam administration to speed the process up.

He said that building housing in the SAR was delayed by local community opposition and by complicated procedures from various arms of government.

He said it could take more than 10 or even 20 years to complete all necessary procedures.

"The Liberal Party believe that there should be a complete overhaul of this red tape and bureaucracy among bureaux and departments to expedite the pace of approval, change of land use and housing development," Cheung said.

The average wait for a public housing flat is now 5.4 years, a lot longer than the government's three-year target.

There have also been recent calls for the government to use the Land Resumption Ordinance to get new housing sites and speed up flat building.

The government has set an annual target of 13,500 new homes, but critics say it needs to do more to address the situation.