Urban renewal in Hong Kong: transition from development corporation to renewal authority

Adams, D. and Hastings, E.M. (2001) Urban renewal in Hong Kong: transition from development corporation to renewal authority. Land Use Policy, 18, pp. 245-258. (doi: 10.1016/S0264-8377(01)00019-9)

Abstract

This paper assesses the record of Hong Kong's Land Development Corporation and considers the reasons for its recent transformation into an Urban Renewal Authority. After reviewing the Corporation's first two phases of projects launched in 1988 and 1992, the paper examines how the Hong Kong Government failed to equip it with adequate powers and resources. As a result, although the LDC certainly established itself as an important actor in urban redevelopment, its own flagship projects took much longer to deliver than originally anticipated and did not produce any major restructuring of land use patterns or transport networks. This recent experience of urban renewal in Hong Kong offers more general lessons for renewal policy elsewhere. These concern the nature of public–private relations, the importance of effective linkages between strategic planning and implementation and the dangers of uncritical policy transfer from one locale to another.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: development,
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Adams, Professor David
• Authors: Adams, D., and Hastings, E.M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Land Use Policy
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0264-8377
• ISSN (Online): 0264-8377
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd
• First Published: First published in Land Use Policy 18:245-258
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher