Advertisement
The View | Public consultation on land supply is doomed to fail, just like the ones before it
Stephen Vines says that public consultations serve to delay action that needs to be taken, and in the case of land and housing issues, that action should be to take on powerful vested interests, including the golf club in Fanling
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Alongside death and taxation, one of the few certainties in life is that Hong Kong government consultation exercises always end in failure. Failure, that is, in satisfying the public over their outcome. This is why the current fandango, designed to seek public views on making land available for housing, has no chance of succeeding.
Advertisement
Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, the chairman of the task force supervising this exercise, says he wants to hear from the 80 per cent of the people who are not directly affected by the proposals contained in his 76-page consultation document.
This gives us the first big hint of where the problem lies because the matters of land, housing and property development are inextricably linked, affecting literally everyone from the most humble caged room-dweller to the public housing tenant, to those fortunate enough to own their homes, and to, of course, the big property developers. There are no bystanders; everyone has some kind of vested interest and, inevitably, these interests differ.
This brings us to the second problem, which is Wong’s insistence that the powerful tycoons, who have never been known to meekly occupy the back seats in the room, will get no preference in the consideration of their views.
Advertisement
Maybe these powerful individuals will not sway Wong and his colleagues but their mandate is to recommend; government officials will make the decisions and they have been known to bow to the interests of the big tycoons who have considerable property interests.
Advertisement