Debated in Parliament on 16 May 2014.
Our goal is to house all Singaporeans in affordable and quality homes, nurture cohesive and vibrant communities, and create a thriving green living environment.
We commit to house all Singaporeans and to help them own their homes. Our housing policies will advance important social objectives of supporting the family, uplifting the low-income and vulnerable, and helping the elderly age in place.
Our efforts to address a temporary imbalance in supply and demand are showing results – home prices have started softening. We will ensure that housing remains affordable, so that young couples can own their homes and start a family as soon as possible. We will strengthen bonds within extended families, by helping couples and their parents live together, or close by, so they can care for each other and render mutual support. The family is and must always be the bedrock of Singapore's society.
We want to progress together as an inclusive caring society. We will help our low-income and vulnerable Singaporeans level up and own a flat, so that they too can have the security of a home and an asset. We will work closely with social agencies to support job upgrading for them and to provide opportunities in education for their children. We will build more rental housing, and integrate them with sold flats in HDB estates.
We will support the elderly so that they can enjoy the fruits of their labour and retire comfortably. We will enhance options for them, if they so wish, to unlock the value in their housing asset. We will facilitate ageing-in-place by making HDB homes and estates elderly-friendly, and by enhancing them with more amenities to make them safe and conducive for healthy and active ageing. The Home Improvement Programme (HIP) refreshes older HDB estates and has covered one-third of all eligible flats. We will step it up to cover another one-third, or 100,000 flats, within the next three years.
A home is more than just a shelter. It is a special place where the heart resides, upon which we build our hopes and dreams, and where we share our lives with our families, our neighbours and our community. We will actively promote harmonious HDB living through well-designed community spaces in both new and existing towns. We will inject vibrancy and foster greater cohesiveness in existing towns under the Remaking Our Heartland initiative.
In HDB estates, we are creating and integrating spaces such as parks, sports and recreational facilities. For instance, we plan to integrate a library and sports facilities within
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a bigger Toa Payoh Town Park. We will provide space for social and community needs, and we will engage residents in energising these spaces, such as the Town Plazas that are coming up in Bedok and Punggol. We will support citizen-led initiatives that catalyse social interaction, so that ground-up community bonding can take root and flourish.
Where there is opportunity, we will conserve buildings and special places with historical and architectural significance as well as strong social memories, so as to preserve the charm and character of old Singapore, and serve as anchors of our identity and markers of Singapore's progress over the years.
Community engagement efforts will extend beyond HDB heartlands. For example, we will seek ideas from the community on how we can sensitively enhance the natural environment and biodiversity of Pulau Ubin and protect its heritage and rustic charm. We will work closely with animal welfare groups, the pet industry and the community to ensure responsible pet ownership and animal welfare. Such ground-up efforts will strengthen community harmony and enhance our sense of identity and belonging to Singapore.
We will pursue our vision to make Singapore an outstanding City in a Garden that Singaporeans are proud of and passionate about. As we review the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, we will reaffirm our commitment to develop a highly liveable, green and sustainable Singapore. We will leverage on technology to develop SMART HDB towns, to meet the varied needs of a maturing society of many ages. Since 2012, we have been test-bedding innovative urban solutions in energy, water and waste management technologies in Punggol, Singapore's first Eco-town. With SMART technology, our towns can be even more liveable, efficient, sustainable and safe for our residents.
Greenery will be made even more accessible to Singaporeans. We are expanding the park connector network, and building the Round-Island Route, a 150km continuous recreational corridor connecting Singaporeans to parks and places of interest across the island. Public housing estates will be planned and designed with more greenery and enhanced access to parks. We will find new and innovative ways to make greenery more pervasive in urban areas and developments, such as the 24km Rail Corridor, and the new initiatives under the Landscape for Urban Spaces and High-rises (LUSH) programme. Our target is for 90% of Singaporeans to live within 400 metres of a park. To conserve our rich biodiversity, we will dedicate 9% of our land for parks and nature reserves.
We commit to make public transport, cycling and walking choice modes of travel for Singaporeans. All HDB towns will have extensive pedestrian and cycling paths. We will build intra-town cycling paths across HDB towns and also new and upgraded cycling routes. We will also introduce fence-less and car-less concepts at Marina South, Kampong Bugis and the Civic District. To reduce the need to travel, we will bring more jobs to residential areas, such
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as in Punggol and the Woodlands Regional Centre.
We will support R&D of new technologies pertinent to sustainable development. Research and innovation can help to overcome today's limitations as well as offer us long-term solutions. We will raise construction productivity and push for more sustainable construction processes. This will ensure a more efficient use of limited manpower and enhance the supply resilience for construction materials.
We will also develop technologies and plans to increase our land capacity through more underground and mixed-use developments. We will increase the productivity of our local farmers and strengthen food security so that Singaporeans continue to enjoy a stable and safe food supply.
Next year, Singapore will celebrate 50 years of nation-building. We have come a long way together and have made tremendous progress. And we will continue to thrive and grow as a nation, to transform Singapore and make it a city of opportunities and an endearing home for all Singaporeans, always. This is a vision that our Pioneer Generation held firmly to as they steered Singapore through the last 50 years; this must be our vision, too, as we chart the future together as one people.
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