Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidental candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) should look closely into her policy proposal on social housing before making criticisms, adding that he failed to fulfill his promise on social housing, which he made when running for New Taipei City mayor.
Chu has finally returned to discussions on policy proposals, it is a good thing,” Tsai said, during a campaign event for DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) in Kaohsiung yesterday morning.
“However, I would like to urge Chu to pay attention to details when looking at his rival’s policy proposals,” she added.
Photo: CNA
During a campaign event on Friday, Chu slammed Tsai’s proposal to build 200,000 social housing units in eight years as not feasible, saying the costs would be too high.
Chu said that he would instead seek to create 200,000 social housing units in four years, not by building them, but by turning existing unused properties into social housing units.
However, Tsai said that Chu has twisted the DPP’s proposal on social housing, adding that her policy includes using vacant housing and providing incentives for construction firms to reserve part of newly built housing complexes for social housing.
“Chu’s [social housing policy] announced [on Friday] was very similar to the DPP’s design in many ways,” Tsai said.
“He should not twist the facts by saying that the DPP’s social housing policy proposal only has the option of government-built housing units,” she said.
Tsai said that in the long term government-built social housing would be a better option as it creates government assets, unlike subsidiary programs, which leave the government with nothing after budget spending.
Tsai also urged Chu to reflect on his past experience in social housing issues as New Taipei City mayor.
“[When running for mayor] Chu once promised to build 180,000 youth and public housing units, but he completed 11,” Tsai said.
“There have been issues in social housing projects under Chu in both Taoyuan and New Taipei City, and he should reflect on the mistakes of the past before talking about new policy projects,” she added.
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