Carrie Lam policy address: massive housing plan near Hong Kong’s border to play starring role in speech, but vision has its critics
- Blueprint calls for expanding on existing plan for New Territories North and will be comparable in scale with Lantau Tomorrow Vision, sources say
- Proposal could make it easier for villagers to sell ancestral land, releasing abandoned farmland and earmarking funds to buy private holdings
The border area development will expand an existing new town project to cover vast swathes of land across New Territories North, making it comparable in scale with the ambitious reclamation scheme off Lantau Island that Lam proposed three years ago.
The strategy will be in keeping with the nation’s 14th five-year economic and social development plan that envisions Hong Kong becoming an international innovation and technology centre.
Observers say developing the border area may be a faster-track option in terms of land supply than the contentious “Lantau Tomorrow Vision” to create a new metropolis on man-made islands, but critics are warning of planning imbalance and conservation concerns.
A source with knowledge of Lam’s policy report said: “All the initiatives presented are very long-term, in terms of decades. Lam has mentioned that housing supply will increase significantly in 10 years.”
