Debated in Parliament on 5 Oct 2021.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what are the criteria used to evaluate the success of the Socially-conscious Enterprise Hawker Centres (SEHCs); (b) from 2019 to 2020, what are the yearly mean, median and range of rents for SEHC stalls compared to NEA-run hawker centre stalls; (c) from 2018 to 2020, what is the yearly number of complaints received at SEHCs; and (d) of these, what are the percentages of hawkers raising such complaints and complaints that are successfully resolved respectively.
The monthly stall rentals at the SEHCs range from $1,000 to $3,693. This is within the range of monthly rentals of non-subsidised stalls at comparable existing hawker centres. In 2019 and 2020, the median monthly stall rental in SEHCs was $2,000. This was also similar to median monthly stall rental at comparable existing hawker centres. As part of the support package for COVID-19, stallholders in SEHCs received five months and four months of rental waiver in 2020 and 2021 respectively, the same as those in existing hawker centres.
Between 2018 and 2020, each SEHC would receive on average four instances of feedback per month, mostly from patrons. SEHC operators are able to address at least 90% of the feedback within three working days as required. SEHC operators have been regularly engaging hawkers through Hawker Feedback Group sessions, held at least once every quarter to gather feedback from stallholders. The SEHC operators proactively work with stallholders to address any concerns raised and to improve their centres.
The SEHC model has brought benefits to both hawkers and patrons. SEHC operators have curated food stalls for quality and variety, and organised events to enhance footfall and vibrancy at their centres. During the pandemic, they have implemented initiatives to help hawkers get onto food delivery and tap on group-buys, and kept stall occupancy high at SEHCs. Some operators have also attracted new entrants to the hawker trade through their own incubation stall programmes.
PAPERCUTS