The Government has welcomed the judgment handed down by the Court of Appeal (CA) today on the appeals against the Court of First Instance (CFI)'s ruling on the judicial review of the Small House Policy.

The CA ruled that the arrangements of Free Building Licence (FBL), Private Treaty Grant (PTG) and Land Exchange under the Small House Policy are lawful traditional rights and interests of the New Territories indigenous inhabitants within the meaning of Article 40 of the Basic Law, and hence lawful and constitutional.

In its response, the Development Bureau said the Government will continue to implement the policy.

Regarding applications for government land to build small houses through PTG and Land Exchange, with the receipt and processing suspended in light of the CFI's judgment, the Government will study the CA's judgment and arrange to resume the receipt and processing of these two types of applications.

The policy has been in place since 1972. The forms of grants under it include FBL which allows applicants to build small houses on their private land, PTG for grant of government land to build small houses, and Land Exchange allowing applicants to build small houses on private land or government land.

In its judgment on the judicial review on April 8, 2019 and the subsequent order on April 30 the same year, the CFI ruled that the arrangements to apply for building small houses on private land through FBL and Land Exchange under the policy, being the lawful traditional rights and interests of the New Territories indigenous inhabitants within the meaning of Article 40 of the Basic Law, are lawful and constitutional, while the arrangements to apply for government land for building small houses through PTG and Land Exchange are not.

All the parties lodged appeals and the CA ruled today that the Government's appeal was allowed.