Town councils will receive over $100 million in additional funding to maintain or replace lifts. (Photo: HDB)
The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced on Thursday (2 February) that it will provide more grants to town councils to support their elevator upkeep, or to replace one if necessary.
“(The) MND will provide a Lift Maintenance Grant (LMG) of $600 per lift owned and maintained by town councils, to help them cope with higher lift-related servicing and maintenance costs. This is expected to cost the government an additional $13 million a year,” it said.
Starting on 1 April, town councils will also need to set up a dedicated Lift Replacement Fund (LRF) to ensure there is enough money set aside for replacing existing elevators. To supplement their savings, the MND will match half of their quarterly contributions to the fund. This is expected to cost more than $50 million per year, and the amount is expected to rise as town councils build up their LRFs over time.
Earlier, the MND had also introduced a Lift Enhancement Programme (LEP), whereby the Housing Board will co-fund about 90 percent of the town councils’ expenses for retrofitting older lifts, at an average cost of $45 million per annum over 10 years.
With these, town councils will collectively receive over $100 million of additional funding per annum. These measures are on top of existing grants that the MND already provides to them, namely the yearly Service & Conservancy Charge (S&CC) Operating Grants and the quarterly GST Subvention Grants, which have a combined cost of around $120 million.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
