Tai Po fire: Flat owners to receive rental subsidy; anti-graft agency nabs current, former chairs of owners’ corporation

Flat owners affected by the Tai Po fire will receive a rental subsidy, Hong Kong authorities have said, as the city’s anti-graft agency arrested the current and former heads of the estate’s incorporated owners.

People line up in Tai Po on November 30, 2024, to lay flowers for those who died in the Wang Fuk Court fire. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said at a press conference on Thursday that flat owners at Wang Fuk Court, the site of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in nearly eight decades, would receive an annual rental subsidy of HK$150,000 for two years.

At the same press conference, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak said the rental subsidy would be distributed in two instalments of HK$75,000 each year, starting from Saturday.

Owners of Wang Chi House, the only building in Wang Fuk Court that escaped the fire, will also receive the subsidy.

Cheuk also announced that both tenants and flat owners at Wang Fuk Court would receive a one-off relocation allowance of HK$50,000.

Wang Fuk Court tenants staying in transitional housing managed by the Housing Bureau or in units provided by the Housing Society will have their rents waived until the end of May, he added.

Both the rental subsidy and the relocation allowance come from the Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, the deputy chief secretary said.

Including the HK$300 million the government injected earlier, the fund now totals about HK$3.5 billion, thanks to donations from members of the public and different organisations.

A building of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po after the deadly fire. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po, was undergoing a large-scale renovation when a fire broke out on November 26, engulfing seven of its eight towers. At least 160 people were killed in the inferno, while six people are still accounted for.

Authorities believe the substandard scaffolding netting and protective foam boards contributed to the rapid spread of the fire.

The blaze claimed at least 160 lives. Six people are still unaccounted for.

ICAC arrests

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) arrested two men – the current and former chairs of the Wang Fuk Court owners’ corporation – on Wednesday, local media reported, citing unnamed sources.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The current chairman took office in September last year, while his predecessor served as chairperson from 2012 until September 2024.

Like many housing estates in Hong Kong, Wang Fuk Court is managed by an owners’ corporation. The entire HK$330 million renovation project – from inspection to tender to construction – was overseen by committees of the owners’ corporation.

By early December, the ICAC said it had arrested 12 people on suspicion of corruption linked to the renovation project, including directors of the consultancy firm and the construction company.

Some of the suspects were among the 15 people police said they had arrested for alleged manslaughter and fraud.