Pritam Singh on public housing motions

The Workers' Party (WP) has "no fundamental objection" to the motion by Progress Singapore Party (PSP), said Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 7), he noted that while one People's Action Party (PAP) member inferred the PSP motion to be "insidious", WP does not share the view. Instead, WP sees it as a call on the Government to review its public housing policies with a view towards greater affordability and accessibility, he said. This is something the Government, to its credit, does regularly in response to feedback, he added. On PSP's proposals, which he said are separate from the wording of the motion, WP believes a "deep conversation" of the options surrounding land pricing policy and how land for public use is valued should be a priority of the Government to ensure HDB flats can be more affordable and accessible, particularly in the face of the use of more taxpayer subsidies to fund HDB's home ownership programme. Turning to the PAP motion, he said it does not sufficiently take into account the reality that the Government should endeavour to make HDB Build-to-Order flats more affordable and more accessible than they currently are. WP proposed an amendment to the motion to call on the Government to intensify its efforts to make HDB flats more affordable and accessible. He said this would be consistent with the reasonable expectations that Singaporeans have for public housing today.