LOWER FLOOR HDB FLATS FOR AGED AND INFIRM

Mr Chin Harn Tong asked the Minister for National Development, with the Report of the Advisory Council on the Aged in mind, if the Housing and Development Board will consider reserving the bottom floors of high-rise public housing blocks for the aged and other persons who will suffer seriously from any lift failure.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Dr Lee Boon Yang) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, the HDB has a policy to give priority to an applicant to select a flat on a lift landing floor or on lower floors, if he or a family member is physically handicapped. This priority is given during the selection of flat units. Based on HDB's records, the majority of cases given such priorities are aged persons.

In anticipation of the increasing proportion of aged in our population, HDB is now building housing blocks with lifts on every floor. With the provision of lift landings on every floor, and the installation of better lifts which result in fewer failures, it would not be necessary to reserve flats on the lower floors exclusively for allocation to the aged and physically disabled. Nonetheless, the present priority scheme for selection of flats on the lower floors would still be maintained for the aged and the disabled.