The Government will be increasing funding for town
councils to maintain and replace lifts in public housing blocks
through two new grants announced on Thursday (Feb 2).
The grants, worth over S$63 million a year, will
increase government funding for town councils to over S$220 million
a year.
Town councils welcomed the Ministry of National
Development’s (MND) announcement on Thursday, with two town council
chairmen saying that the new grants will ease the pressure to
increase service and conservancy charges (S&CC) in the coming
year.
The Lift Maintenance Grant will provide town councils
with S$600 per lift that is owned and maintained by the town
councils to help them cope with higher servicing and maintenance
costs, and this will cost the government S$13 million a year.
The Matching Grant for the Lift Replacement Fund that
town councils will have to set up from April will see the MND
matching 50 per cent of the town councils’ quarterly contributions.
It is expected to cost more than S$50 million in the coming year,
and the ministry said the grant amount is likely to increase as
town councils build up their Lift Replacement Funds over time.
Under the fund, town councils must set aside at least 14 per cent
of their S&CC collections and government grants from April.
Lift accidents in recent years, including one that was
fatal, have cast the spotlight on lift safety and reliability and
the Building and Construction Authority had introduced tougher lift
maintenance requirements last year.
The new grants will “definitely help the People’s
Action Party Town Councils to enhance the safety and performance of
the lifts”, said Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the ruling
party’s town councils. The grants will pay for part of the lift
maintenance and replacement costs, but Dr Teo said that with “over
22,000 lifts operating 24/7 in the 15 PAP town councils”, rising
maintenance costs remain challenging.
Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council chairman Zainal Sapari
said that before Thursday’s announcement, an increase in service
and conservancy charges was needed. “We have made our projections
and we really need more funds, especially our sinking fund, in
order to do cyclical maintenance,” said Mr Zainal, who is Member of
Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. “With (the new) grants, we
need to relook at it and perhaps the increase will not be as much
compared to without the grants.”
Marine Parade Town Council chairman Lim Biow Chuan said
an increase in S&CC was “very likely” before the two grants
were announced, and it would now review its financial situation
again. The need to “ringfence” funds under the Lift Replacement
Fund would hurt the town council’s finances quite a bit, and Mr
Lim, who is MP for Mountbatten, said town councils’ appeals to the
MND for help “got louder”.
MP and Nee Soon Town Council chairman Louis Ng said it
would work the grants into its projections and “see how it’ll help
in the long term”. He said there are new Build To Order flats
coming up, as well as lifts whose defects liability period will be
expiring in the town council.
Last September, the Government said it would provide
S$450 million over
10 years to town councils under the Lift
Enhancement Programme, through which the Housing and Development
Board would co-fund about 90 per cent of town councils’ cost of
retrofitting older lifts with safety features and enhancements
found in newer lifts. That amount, together with the two new
grants, will double the Government’s funding to town councils. Its
other funding support is through the S&CC operating grant
(S$100 million a year) and Goods and Services Tax subvention grant
(S$20 million a year).
Town councils have the responsibility to manage and
maintain common property in public housing estates and need to do
their part to plan ahead and take appropriate steps to ensure
sustainable long-term finances, MND reiterated.
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