Lift upgrades: Town councils to receive help

TOWN councils can look forward to government help in paying for lift upgrading.

Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu said it is considering a one-off subsidy for town councils, estimated at $130 million in total.

The amount each will receive will depend partly on the complexity and scale of the lift upgrading project, she said yesterday.

Town councils will be given the details later this year.

They now co-pay the cost of the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) to make it more affordable for residents.

While this is well-intended and should be upheld, it must be ensured that this co-payment ‘does not overstrain the town councils’ ability to meet other cyclical works, which are also for the benefit of residents’, said Ms Fu.

She added that even though the Government bears the bulk of the cost of the LUP, at $5.5 billion, town councils still have to co-pay about $360 million in total – not a small sum.

This can pose a ’significant burden’ for some town councils, especially those with a high concentration of flats built in the 1980s, when homes were built to allow greater privacy. These flats will require costlier lift projects.

Ms Fu was answering questions from MPs, such as Mr Ahmad Magad (Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC) and Mr Masagos Zulkifli (Tampines GRC), on the lift upgrading burden on town councils.

She also provided an update on the LUP, saying it was ‘on track’.

The Government has identified more than 90 per cent of the blocks eligible for lift upgrading, and 50 per cent have works completed or ongoing, she said.

The HDB will select the remaining blocks for upgrading over the next two years or so and the whole programme will be completed by 2014, as earlier announced.

Source : Straits Times – 6 Mar 2010