Extra costs and the use of public resources may be incurred under the Hong Kong government’s proposed moves to increase professional scrutiny of building maintenance projects following the deadly Tai Po inferno, a lawmaker has said, calling for further discussion.
Election Committee lawmaker Andrew Lam Siu-lo, a town planner by training, said on Thursday that expanding the Urban Renewal Authority’s (URA) role in such projects might require extra time and money, urging the government and legislature to discuss the proposals’ implementation details in greater depth.
“We have reached consensus on strengthening supervision and providing more assistance to individual homeowners, but discussions are still lacking regarding the costs of the new measures,” he told a radio programme.
At the first meeting of the new Legislative Council term on Wednesday, government officials outlined a series of measures to reform regulatory mechanisms for building maintenance projects and crack down on bid-rigging.
Such measures were proposed in response to the deadly blaze in Wang Fuk Court of Tai Po in late November, which claimed at least 161 lives and displaced around 5,000 residents.
According to preliminary investigations, non-fire-retardant scaffolding mesh and polyfoam boards, applied to protect windows during renovation, were blamed for the rapid spread of the fire.
