Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at Community Build Day
Apr 6, 2025
Opening
A very good morning to Adviser Mr Saktiandi Supaat, residents, and friends. It is a pleasure to join you today in the installation of this River Crab playground.
I would like to start by thanking everyone here for playing a very active part in bringing this Build-A-Playground initiative to life. I saw that many of you took part in physical and Zoom meetings, and focus group discussions for the planning, installation, and completion of this playground.
In particular, the creative rubber flooring design was the winning entry from one of our youngest residents, Jia Le, from First Toa Payoh Primary School.
I am sure that this River Crab playground will add to the collection of beloved landmarks in Toa Payoh, alongside our iconic Dragon playgrounds.
I don’t live in Toa Payoh, but I have an office here. My grandfather lived in Toa Payoh so as a child, I used to visit Toa Payoh every weekend with my mom, dad, and sister.
The dragon playground was part of my childhood. And I saw the dragon playground arriving here in Toa Payoh today. The “River Crab” playground will add to the whole array of iconic landmarks for Toa Payoh.
Continual rejuvenation of HDB towns
Our HDB homes have a special place in many Singaporeans’ hearts.
We continuously work to keep them liveable and vibrant for residents, and refresh them to meet evolving needs over time.
This is achieved through upgrading programmes across various levels – at the town, neighbourhood, and flat levels.
At the town level, we have the Remaking Our Heartland programme, or ROH, which carries out large-scale rejuvenation to inject new life into our towns.
So far, 13 towns, including Toa Payoh, have been identified for rejuvenation under the ROH.
Following the feedback from 2,000 Toa Payoh residents and community stakeholders on their aspirations for this town, we have revitalised the Toa Payoh N1 Neighbourhood Park with the addition of this River Crab playground and other new amenities, including a pets’ park and a community garden.
Looking ahead, residents can look forward to another community-built “Plantation Kampung” playground at Blk 99C Lorong 2 Toa Payoh later this year.
Keeping neighbourhoods vibrant
At the neighbourhood level, we have the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme, or NRP, which injects new facilities and upgrades existing ones, based on your feedback on the improvements you would like to see in your neighbourhood.
This ensures that our shared spaces remain relevant in meeting residents’ needs and foster community bonding.
As of end-March 2025, 131 NRP projects have been completed, benefitting about 187,000 households.
Last year, we announced the extension of NRP to include HDB blocks built between 1996 to 1999, to benefit even more residents.
As part of this extension, we will incorporate more senior-friendly enhancements, in line with our national programme called Age Well SG. This includes therapeutic gardens, fitness trails, and wayfinding features so our seniors can easily find their way home and find their way around the estate.
To support the expanded scope of works, we will increase the budget for NRP projects to around $6,600 per flat, up from $6,100. This gives us more budget per flat and w we multiply it by the number of units in the neighbourhood, it gives us more budget to make enhancements, especially senior-friendly enhancements for our elders.
I am happy to announce that 17 projects located island-wide will be added to the NRP this year, including projects in Bukit Panjang, Sembawang, and Sengkang.
A total of over $165 million will be allocated to these new projects, which will benefit more than 25,000 households.
Shaping more senior-friendly neighbourhoods
Some older HDB estates had earlier undergone upgrading and are not eligible for the NRP.
For inclusivity, we recently introduced the Silver Upgrading Programme, or SUP, to such estates which have already gone through one round of upgrading because they have a higher density of seniors, to ensure that they are also equipped with senior-friendly enhancements to support ageing-in-place.
We started with a pilot at 4 precincts in Ang Mo Kio last year.
Today, I am pleased to announce that we are expanding the SUP to an additional 12 precincts across Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, and Toa Payoh this year. This will benefit 11,000 more households.
In total, over 36,000 households will enjoy refreshed, senior-friendly living environments under the latest batch of the NRP and SUP.
Making our homes more accessible for all residents
Our upgrading programmes are not confined to just towns and neighbourhoods. At the flat level, we have the Lift Upgrading Programme, or LUP, which has provided direct lift access to residents in over 5,000 HDB blocks since 2001.
Today, 99% of all HDB blocks have direct lift access. For the remaining 1% of blocks that are not eligible for the LUP due to cost or technical constraints, we provide the Lift access Housing Grant, or LHG, as an alternative.
This helps residents, in urgent need of direct lift access due to mobility challenges, to offset the cost of buying another new or resale HDB flat with direct lift access.
Starting today, we will increase the grant quantum to $80,000 for families and $40,000 for singles. This is almost three times higher than the current $30,000 and $15,000 respectively.
We hope that this significant enhancement will make it easier for more households to move to a new home that can better support their accessibility needs.
Allow me to say a few words in Mandarin
大家早上好。
随着屋龄增长，我们的组屋难免会出现日常的磨损和老化。政府多年来也不断地翻新旧组屋和住宅区， 为它们注入新活力，也让居民安居乐业。
跟大家分享我们翻新计划的一些进展。
我们在去年宣布了邻区更新计划（NRP）将扩展至1996年到1999年之间建成的组屋区, 也将提供更多亲乐龄设施，包括康疗花园和健身步道。
因此，我们将把邻区更新计划的财政预算从目前的每个单位6千1百元增至到6千6百元。
我也很高兴能在此宣布我们最新一批的邻区更新计划将惠及超过2万5千户家庭。
获选的17个项目分布在16个市镇，包括武吉班让、三巴旺和盛港。我们将总共拨出超过1亿6千5百万元给这些项目。
至于早前已完成翻新但后来有更多年长居民的组屋区，我们去年在宏茂桥的4个邻里试行乐龄翻新计划（SUP）。
试行效果成功，因此我们今年将扩大计划的范围，让额外1万1千户家庭居住在宏茂桥、红山和大巴窑的12个邻里受惠。
最后，为了进一步协助那些行动不便，但住在无电梯直达楼层的居民， 我们将提高现有津贴。
从今天起，我们将把家庭所享有的电梯服务安居津贴（LHG）从3万元增至8万元，单身者则从1万5千元增至4万元。
Closing
All these improvements reflect our commitment in keeping our HDB homes liveable and vibrant. As residents, we hope to hear from everyone, so please share your ideas and feedback with us.
Thank you, and have a wonderful day ahead.