Converting Unused Common Spaces in Office Buildings to Public Family Rooms
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns Mr Desmond Choo’s inquiry regarding converting unused common spaces into family rooms for buildings with maximized gross floor area and encouraging lactation facilities. Minister Lawrence Wong explained that the Accessibility Code mandates family-friendly features in new buildings, while existing owners can access financial grants to offset construction costs. Specifically, the Accessibility Fund covers 40% of costs for family-friendly features, while the WorkPro Work-Life Grant provides up to $20,000 for lactation facilities. The Minister noted that while new buildings generally comply with the Code, grant take-up among existing building owners is low due to refurbishment requirements. Consequently, the government is reviewing current grants and gross floor area incentive schemes to further encourage building owners to provide these essential family-friendly spaces.
Transcript
28 Mr Desmond Choo asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether the Government can help existing office building owners which have used up the permissible gross floor area to look into unused common spaces to install public family rooms; and (b) how it can further encourage the provision of lactation facilities in new office buildings.
The Minister for National Development (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mdm Speaker, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), through the Accessibility Code, already requires buildings frequented by families to have family-friendly features.
There are also financial grants from BCA and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to offset the construction cost of such spaces. Specifically, BCA's Accessibility Fund covers up to 40% of construction costs of family-friendly features, such as lactation rooms and accessible family washrooms. Specifically for developing lactation facilities, building owners and developers can also tap on MOM's WorkPro Work-Life Grant which covers half of the costs, up to a cap of $20,000.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and BCA will continue to review and enhance the measures to encourage both workplaces and buildings frequented by families to provide more family-friendly spaces, including lactation facilities and diaper changing areas.
Mdm Speaker: Mr Desmond Choo.
Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): I thank the Minister for his answer. I would like to check what is the take-up rate to date by existing and new buildings for the grants, and how many of them have lactation and family-friendly facilities.
Mr Lawrence Wong: Madam, for new buildings, in a way they are already covered by the Code. And for new buildings, most of them are doing quite well in terms of having family-friendly features because there is an Accessibility Code putting in place certain requirements on building owners.
For existing building owners, that is a bit more challenging because they will have to put in new investments to refurbish and upgrade or update their buildings in order to bring them in line with these new requirements. The grants are there. The take-up rate is admittedly quite low, and we are continuing to review not just the grants but also the gross floor area (GFA) incentive schemes to see what else we can do, to encourage building owners to put in place these measures.