Who is in-charged of Estate Renewal and HDB Playgrounds?

Seems like the rallies have brought up the points of estate renewal and HDB playgrounds not being well maintained. Based on the reports I've seen, it seems that there is what I call selective information disclosure. Let me see if I can shed some light on these areas.

First point on estate renewals. Estate Renewals such as the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) and Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) is under the jurisdiction of HDB, not the town councils. It includes improvements such as drop-off porch, pipes leaking, etc. Refer to the HDB website here for more information.

On HDB playgrounds not being well maintained, I cannot find any literature that states the town council's exact scope of work but based on news releases on the grading of town councils, it would seem that it is under the town council's jurisdiction.

I am not an expert on this kind of M&E works but let me draw an analogy with IT. Let's say that you have a particular computer that you have bought 20 years ago. It was state of the art at that time and all the parts are easily upgradeable. 20 years later however, it is very difficult to find the parts that can be used to maintain that computer. Even if you can find it, you have to get someone to specifically manufacture it just for you, jacking up the cost. Sometimes, you cannot even find such a manufacturer because it is too obsolete.

Is that the case for some playgrounds not being maintained properly? I'm not sure but this may be a case. However, upgrading of HDB playgrounds is covered under HDB's Neighbourhood Renewal Programme. Maybe try to get your town council to upgrade the playgrounds so that it is easier and cheaper to maintain it. Refer to the HDB website here for more information on the NRP.

Maintenance of your block however, is under your town council. That will cover cleanliness, lift maintenance, repainting/redecorating, etc. However, I was reading some literature available for Tanjong Pagar GRC and it is stated that the amount collected from the S&CC is not sufficient to run the operations and they are reliant on the government operating grant. However, there is a big difference in the amount of operating grant given to different town councils. Based on the 2010 annual reports, Tanjong Pagar received an operating grant of 12 million dollars but Hougang only got an operating grant of 880 thousand dollars. How the government determine the operating grants I have no idea though. There are no records of any PAP SMC's government operating grant because all the SMCs seem to be maintained by a bigger GRC town council. All the government grants given to those town councils are in terms of millions.

For a better idea on what's the scope of your town council, you can take a look at Hougang's Town Council scope of work here.

This is all the information I can find on the scope of work of HDB and Town Councils.