All 17 town councils received top ratings in estate management ahead of GE2025: MND report

SINGAPORE – All town councils received top ratings for estate management in their last performance review done before the 2025 General Election.

The 17 town councils had green ratings across four categories of assessment in the latest town council management report released by the Ministry of National Development (MND) on June 13.

This operational report covered the 2024 financial year from April 2024 to March 2025. The general election was held on May 3.

The town councils continued to uphold their top marks from the last report for financial year 2023, where they all received the green ratings – the first time since the reports were issued in 2010.

Green is the highest rating, followed by amber and red. The four areas of assessment are estate cleanliness, estate maintenance, lift performance and service and conservancy charges arrears management.

To get a green rating for estate cleanliness or maintenance, a town council must have fewer than four counts of specific issues observed per block. 

For cleanliness, the issues include the presence of stains, litter, bulky refuse and graffiti. The top issue for cleanliness across the town councils continued to be stains and litter, similar to the previous report.

For estate maintenance, obstruction of common areas also continued to be the main issue.

Other observations included unauthorised fixtures, damaged plaster or spalling concrete, and storage of combustible items.

Lift performance was assessed to be top tier if town councils had fewer than two lift faults per 10 lifts monthly, and less than one hour of downtime per lift monthly.

Service and conservancy charges arrears management was assessed as green if less than 40 per cent of the monthly collectible fees were overdue, and less than four in 100 households owed arrears for three months or more.

A separate report that assesses town councils’ corporate governance and internal controls over the same period will be published at the end of 2025. This is after MND receives and reviews the town councils’ audited financial statements and their auditors’ reports.

MND will not be publishing the operational or governance reports for the 2025 financial year, which covers the period from April 2025 to March 2026. It said this is meant to provide a transition period for the newly formed and reconstituted town councils after the recent general election, so they can stabilise operations after any handovers.

MND said it would continue to monitor the town councils’ performances during this period and share its feedback with them to support their transition.

The ministry previously announced that two new town councils in Punggol and Jalan Kayu were formed on May 30, bringing the total to 19. Among these 19 town councils, 12 were reconstituted due to electoral boundary changes.

Publication of the town council management reports will resume from financial year 2026, said MND.

“This is consistent with the approach taken after GE2020,” it added.