URA supports Government’s initiatives to enhance safety condition of aged lifts and to facilitate redevelopment of buildings under the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Building Society Scheme

In response to the announcement made by the Chief Executive in the 2018 Policy Address today (Wednesday) on the launch of the “Lift Modernisation Subsidy Scheme” (LIMSS) for aged lifts, and the initiative to establish a mechanism to facilitate the redevelopment of buildings under the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Building Society Scheme (CBS), a spokesman for the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) said the URA welcomes the Government’s new initiatives with full support.  Relevant implementation framework and details will be devised and submitted to the URA Board for deliberation and approval.

Making reference to the “Operation Building Bright 2.0 Scheme” and “Fire Safety Improvement Works Subsidy Scheme”, both being implemented by the URA in partnership with the Government, the LIMSS will assist building owners in need, through the provision of financial assistance, to undertake lift modernisation works, aiming to expedite lift modernisation to enhance the safety of aged lift, and thereby public safety.  The URA will work out with the Government department the implementation framework and subsidy mechanism for submission to the URA Board for deliberation and approval. The LIMSS is planned for application in the first quarter of 2019.

Meanwhile, the URA will explore the redevelopment of CBS buildings and identify suitable clusters of CBS sites as pilot sites to be formulated as redevelopment project(s) which will be incorporated in the URA’s Business Plan for submission to the URA Board for approval.  Acquisition of properties of the CBS buildings will be conducted in accordance with the prevailing URA policy, upon granting of approval to implement the CBS building redevelopment project by the Secretary for Development or the Town Planning Board.

(ENDS)