The Pulse：Legco's Rules of Procedure, Raymond So Undersec for Transport & Housing, HK's housing prob

Regular meetings of the Legislative Council have now resumed, but the new legislative session didn’t get off to a good start. Just one day after it began, meetings were adjourned when pro-democrats made 11 quorum calls. Now that the government has managed to disqualify six elected pro-democracy legislators, the pro-government camp believe they have the upper hand and want to amend Legco’s rules of procedure to limit debates and questioning of officials. The Chairman of the Finance Committee, Chan Kin-por, is even taking steps to restrict debating time over government funding requests.
Last week, we spoke to Chief Executive Carrie Lam about her first Policy Address. Land and housing were major priorities. Now with me in the studio to further discuss these ever controversial matters is the Undersecretary for Transport and Housing, Raymond So.
Those expecting news of more affordable housing in last week’s Policy Address will have been very disappointed. However there were some new measures such as an increased supply of Subsidised Home Ownership units providing “Starter Homes” for middle-class families. Plus there are plans for “Light Housing” projects in idle government premises, some transitional housing and even the opportunity to live in shipping containers. Ms Lam says she wants to focus on home-ownership, yet many people can only dream of taking that first step on the housing ladder.
Meanwhile more than 2,000 delegates from all over China are sitting in Beijing attending the 19th Chinese Communist Party congress, which will lay out new policies for the coming five years and looks to cement President Xi Jinping’s position. We’ll leave you with images of that. See you next week.