Whatever drove the decision to allow single people into flat-buying plan, Dennis Kwok wants a meeting to get to the bottom of it
LAI YING-KIT
YINGKIT.LAI@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 12:49pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 12:50pm
Lawmaker Dennis Kwok is urging a meeting to ascertain how the sudden policy reversal came about. Photo: Felix Wong
The Urban Renewal Authority overestimated the risk of legal challenges when it allowed single people to buy flats at one of its new development projects in Kai Tak, according to a non-executive director of the body.
Lawmaker Dennis Kwok said the authority might have committed its policy U-turn over concerns its original plan might be contested in court under two anti-discrimination laws.
The authority on Tuesday announced it would allow single people – instead of only families of two people or more under its original plan – to buy units at its De Novo development in Kai Tak.
But Kwok said subsidised housing and housing benefits were exempted from the two laws. “I think the management might have overestimated the risk,” he said during a Commercial Radio talk show today.
He also said the authority’s decision to change its original plan did not appear on the agenda at the body’s board meeting this week.
Kwok said no documents regarding the decision were sent to board directors.
“So how significant was the risk of such legal challenges?” asked the Civic Party member and barrister. “Whether we sought our own legal advice or not, all these issues had not been discussed.”
Kwok was one of four non-executive directors who accused the authority of bypassing the board in its abrupt reversal. He urged that a special meeting be held to discuss how the decision came about.
It also emerged that the decision was made after the Equal Opportunities Commission stepped in to handle an allegation that the original plan discriminated against single people.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1883499/hong-kong-lawmaker-says-urban-renewal-authority-too-fearful
