HOUSING BOARD FLATS (Construction and maintenance)

Mr Yeo Toon Chia asked the Minister for National Development, in view of the slowing down in the public housing programmes, (a) what measures his Ministry intends to take to ensure better workmanship from the building contractors; and (b) whether it is feasible to extend the maintenance period from the present 12 months to 18 months.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Teh Cheang Wan): Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no slow-down in the public housing programme. Though the number of flats to be built over the next few years will be reduced slightly, these new flats have bigger floor areas and more improved features. The total volume of construction work will, therefore, not be lower than that of previous years.

Good workmanship depends on the availability of a large pool of skilled workers. At present, our construction industry has to depend on unskilled foreign workers. The Housing and Development Board together with the Vocational and Industrial Training Board have implemented a scheme to train local construction workers but the output is not sufficiently large to create an impact. My Ministry is at present looking into more effective ways of attracting school leavers into the construction industry as well as upgrading the skills of construction workers.

From our experience, a 12-month maintenance period is optimal. Most of the defects would have been rectified by then. This is also an accepted practice in the construction industry. There is no advantage in increasing the maintenance period to 18 months. It will instead lead to substantial price increases by contractors. Moreover, with the large construction programme of the Housing and Development Board, it is not possible to ensure that defects do not occur even after 18 months.