New law on urban renewal to be proposed

KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Territories Ministry will propose a new law on urban renewal to Parliament to facilitate the redevelopment of old buildings by the private sector, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.

Its minister Khalid Abdul Samad said at present, the process was carried out only using guidelines under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976.

He said the guide involved four categories, namely urban redevelopment, urban rehabilitation, urban preservation and urban revitalisation.

“However, in the Malaysian context, until now, there has been no specific legislation for urban renewal, so a new law on the matter should be established,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat conference here yesterday.

He was responding to a query from Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) who wished to know whether the ministry intended to introduce new laws for urban renewal by private companies as implemented in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore.

Meanwhile, Khalid said housing projects based on a cross-subsidy model will be continued by the Pakatan Harapan government, however, it would be implemented in a more transparent manner.

“We find that although the concept is good, but in many existing projects, the deals are found to be more advantageous to developers. We will be more transparent and open,” he said.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (BN-Putrajaya) on whether the government would continue to implement a cross-subsidy model to provide free housing to existing residents of an area without using government funds, such as the projects in Kampung Kerinchi and Bandar Tun Razak. - Bernama