RESIDENTS of Nee Soon GRC can expect more improvements to their homes and surroundings over the next five years, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam yesterday.

Speaking at the launch of the five-year town renewal plan for the newly created GRC, he said Nee Soon was ‘set to be transformed into a great place to live, work and play. A town which we can call Our Home’.

As part of the $600 million renewal plan, he announced that 37 blocks in three precincts had been picked for the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) and the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP).

As for the health-care needs of residents, he said at the event at Yishun Street 72 that they could look forward to a new community hospital, a new polyclinic and two nursing homes in the new GRC.

Mr Shanmugam said that under the HDB’s ‘Remaking Our Heartland’ programme, Yishun Town Centre will be transformed into a vibrant hub with entertainment, dining and other recreational facilities. It will also have an air-conditioned bus interchange.

Speaking to reporters later, he said the improvements would make a substantial difference to the quality of life of residents and how they can enjoy Yishun Town.

While there have been substantial improvements over the years, ‘we are now talking about the next phase… We look at the whole of Yishun Town and want it to be an active vibrant green place. And if you look at the plan, the impressions that have been put up, this is really going to create further transformation. It’s a continuous movement up but qualitatively this is at a different level’.

In addition, residents who enjoy the outdoors can turn to the Yishun Pond, which will become an ‘urban oasis’ with 800 trees planted around it.

Yishun Park will also undergo redevelopment and be completed by 2014, and two new parks will also be built.

Mr Shanmugam also said a total of 10,000 public and private housing units will be built in the new GRC. Four schools will be upgraded and connectivity to Nee Soon GRC will be improved when the proposed Thomson MRT Line and the North-South Expressway are completed.

Source: Straits Times, 21st April 2011

AROUND 12,000 Housing Board households in older estates will be selected this year for sprucing up under the Home Improvement Programme (HIP).

A similar number of flats, or up to 14 precincts each time, will be chosen each year from now on, said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan yesterday.

Repairs will cover spalling concrete, leaky ceilings and the replacement of waste pipes, with the costs borne fully by the Government. Optional improvements, such as the upgrading of toilets, are heavily subsidised.
The programme was first announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech in 2007. Since then, Mr Mah said, some 27 precincts have been selected for HIP, with all 12 that have been polled voting to adopt it.

The HIP will be a permanent fixture of the HDB’s upgrading programmes as it complements the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP), which upgrades an estate with better facilities based on residents’ feedback, he said.

Mr Mah was speaking at the completion ceremony of the first HIP precinct in Yishun Street 21, which covered nine blocks and 729 households.

He said: ‘Moving forward, more residents islandwide will benefit from this programme, with up to 14 precincts selected for HIP this year.’

A HDB estimate puts the number of households benefiting this year at between 10,000 and 12,000. Mr Mah did not reveal the locations of these precincts.

The HIP together with the NRP will rejuvenate middle-aged and mature towns, Mr Mah said. ‘In this way, we raise the standard of living and preserve the value of HDB assets for our people.’

The estimated HIP cost for the Yishun precinct was $11.3 million, with the Government footing about $10.9 million. For each flat, the Government will fund fully the essential improvement costs, which came up to $13,000 per flat.

What home owners pay for the optional improvements vary between types of flats. If a four-room flat home owner opted for all five optional changes, including upgraded toilets and the replacement of the entrance door, he would pay $825.

The Government will foot another $11,775. Together with the $13,000 funding for the essential repairs, the home owner would enjoy a total subsidy of $24,775. Those with three-room units would pay $550 and five-room flat dwellers pay $1,100 for the optional items, with the Government’s share being $12,050 and $11,500 respectively.

Singapore permanent residents pay the full upgrading cost.

Mr S. N. Nair, 73, opted for all five items. The retiree, who lives with his wife in a four-room flat, said that the upgrading of the toilet had made it both safer and cleaner for the couple who have been living there for the past 25 years.

Madam Massilah Ali, 40, who has been living in Yishun for the past 12 years with her husband and two daughters, said: ‘The pricing is also very reasonable and the best part is that we can pay using our CPF (savings).’

A HDB survey found that 99 per cent of the residents were satisfied with the HIP.

Mr Mah added that upgrading works will gradually be introduced to other towns as part of a long-term plan. ‘We will remake the heartlands, phase by phase, and I think you will eventually see new rejuvenated heartlands, whether it’s the old towns or middle-aged towns.’

Source, Straits Times 23 March 2010