URA

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY 46 Diversified Urban Space for Health and Happiness As a mission-driven organisation, the URA sees itself as the catalyst for the development of a sustainable built environment to serve the community beyond green buildings. Over the years, we have endeavoured to include open space and community/institutional areas, where practicable, in our larger-scale projects. Our redevelopment projects have provided easily- accessible community and institutional facilities, including residential care homes for the elderly, youth centres, health centres, markets, cooked food centres and an indoor stadium. To further and better utilise the open space for public enjoyment, new place-making initiatives have now been commenced in our current project portfolios (as described elsewhere in the Operating Review). The URA also supplies space for various Government Departments and organisations to carry out a wide range of activities, training, displays and exhibitions that include the arts, youth activities, education, tourism, hobbies and so on. With the URA’s assistance/ sponsorship, events have been staged at venues operated by the URA and its joint-venture partners, such as Central Market, the Urban Renewal Resource Centre, Citywalk, and Western Market. FACILITATE THE RENEWAL PROCESS Our urban renewal efforts may bring entrenched impacts to the community while we are committed to enrich the urban old districts living vibrancy and construct a safe and hygienic built environment with sustainability for the betterment of society. To facilitate the urban renewal process, we provide both financial and technical support to encourage owners taking part in the building rehabilitation to join hands to slow down the urban decay. Assistances of various kinds are also offered to affected residents in our redevelopment projects, among others, the “Project Engagement Programme” is launched to help residents overcome their worries in the acquisition and rehousing process, contributing to expedite the pace of redevelopment. Encouraging and Facilitating Timely Rehabilitation The URA is tasked to improve the living standard of families living in older urban districts through urban renewal. Apart from redevelopment, rehabilitation also takes a prime role in the urban renewal process to extend the lifespan of buildings, beautify façades, and slow down the pace of urban decay. Section 19 of the URS emphasises that the proper repair and maintenance of buildings is vital for regenerating ageing districts. As calculated in December 2016, about 3,500 building blocks that are more than 50-years old are in poor and varied condition; yet many building owners lack the confidence to rehabilitate, in part due to concerns of bid-rigging in the building renovation industry. Therefore, to empower the community to tackle the problem of ageing buildings, URA staff need to establish trust with the building owners by providing professional advice and technical support. This personal assistance is valued by the building owners as much as the financial assistance provided through rehabilitation schemes. Since 2004 and up to the end of June 2018, about 3,950 building blocks (around 128,900 units) have been rehabilitated with the support of various URA assistance schemes. On top of personal assistance, an Building Rehab Info Net has been set up to provide