Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Food Affordability

Question:

Mr Victor Lye: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) how does the Government define and measure “affordable food” in fulfilling the mission of hawker centres to provide affordable food options; and (b) what is the extent that affordability should be assessed with reference to (i) prices of representative basic meals (ii) household income, particularly of lower-income households and seniors and (iii) the reasonable proximity and availability of such meals.

Answer:

Food affordability is influenced by a range of factors and can differ from household to household. The Government therefore does not define “affordable food” by a single price threshold. Instead, we consider affordability in terms of whether residents have access to a range of affordable food options in their neighbourhoods.

The Government does not regulate the prices of cooked food sold at hawker centres. Instead, we seek to provide hawkers with a conducive operating environment that enables them to keep their prices affordable while sustaining their livelihoods. The Government bears the upfront cost of building hawker centres and does not recover this cost from stallholders. NEA also has policies in place to keep rents at hawker centres stable, including not setting reserve rents for stall tenders and disallowing subletting. Hawker centres are generally regarded as important places for affordable food options – for example, a RySense survey from 2023 found that 3 in 4 respondents supported keeping hawker culture alive because hawker centres provide good food at affordable prices.

Affordable food options should also be reasonably accessible to residents where they live. The Government has therefore built over 120 hawker centres across Singapore to keep affordable food options within the reach of Singaporeans, and has plans to build more.

The Government also works closely with the community to provide targeted support for lower-income households and seniors that need it. For example, some neighbourhoods have community initiatives, such as affordable food vending machines and free warm meals provided through food lockers near rental flat residents.