Hong Kong lawmakers are urging authorities to provide more timely and flexible urgent accommodation for residents displaced by new regulations targeting subdivided flats. While the Housing Bureau plans to reserve 180 transitional flats, concerns exist about the week-long review process for applicants.
Hong Kong's average waiting time for subsidised public rental housing drops to 4.7 years, first below 5 years under current administration, though standard homes wait at 5.6 years unchanged.
The “mechanical mindset” of Hong Kong building authorities has come under scrutiny at a hearing into the city’s deadliest fire in decades, with a former inspection director conceding his team had “blindly” followed outdated guidelines when deciding not to conduct on-site audits of renovation works at the housing estate ravaged in the blaze. Rudolf Lau Fu-kwok, who was the head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit when the fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court last November, said on...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The deputy director of the Home Affairs Department and the former head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) were the latest Hong Kong officials to testify at a public hearing on the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. Their cross-examination on Friday concluded the fourth round of evidential hearings held by the government-appointed...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The deputy director of the Home Affairs Department and the former head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) are the latest Hong Kong officials to testify at a public hearing on Friday into the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. Their cross-examination will also conclude the fourth round of evidential hearings held by the...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The deputy director of the Home Affairs Department and the former head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) are the latest Hong Kong officials to testify at a public hearing on Friday into the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. Their cross-examination will also conclude the fourth round of evidential hearings held by the...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The deputy director of the Home Affairs Department and the former head of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) are the latest Hong Kong officials to testify at a public hearing on Friday into the city’s deadliest blaze in decades. Their cross-examination will also conclude the fourth round of evidential hearings held by the...
A Hong Kong building inspector mistook illegal alterations to emergency staircases at a housing estate ravaged in a deadly fire as protective measures for “broken” windows, because he based his assessment solely on documents and did not carry out a site visit, a public inquiry has heard. Senior maintenance surveyor Nick Yung Siu-lun, the head of the minor works team of the Housing Bureau’s independent checking unit, said on Thursday he thought the wooden boards used to cover the temporary...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) testified on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee continued to question members of the unit over the lack of oversight in the run-up to the fire at Wang Fung Court, with Nick Yung Siu-lun, senior...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) is set to testify on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee will continue to question members of the unit over the lack of oversight in the run-up to the fire at Wang Fung Court, with Nick Yung...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) is set to testify on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee will continue to question members of the unit over the lack of oversight in the run-up to the fire at Wang Fung Court, with Nick Yung...
Government inspectors did not foresee engineering firms colluding to deceive authorities over the use of substandard renovation materials at a Hong Kong residential estate devastated in the city’s deadliest fire in decades, a public inquiry has heard. Andy Ku Siu-ping, a senior maintenance surveyor of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit, on Wednesday blamed “systemic defects” for the body’s failure to rectify the use of flammable polyfoam boards and scaffolding mesh during a HK$336...
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testify before a judge-led panel on Wednesday about their role in Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze. Senior maintenance surveyor Andy Ku Siu-ping will be the only witness giving live evidence in the first of three sessions of the fourth round of evidential...
