【正文】 HERE is one thing that annoys the man on the Beijing omnibus, it is the cost of housing in China’s unofficial estimates, the average price of a flat in the capital has risen between five and tenfold in the past Li Keqiang, who is likely to bee China’s next prime minister, is trying to show his mettle by sorting out the his direction, local governments have embarked on a campaign to build unprecedented quantities of social housing for the urban have been claiming a spectacular success, but persuading citizens to share their joy is proving another from Mr Li looks, on the surface, to be paying statistics suggest that in recent weeks, local governments(not normally known for their enthusiasm for spending money on the poor)have been racing to meet their quotas for the October 10th the centralgovernment declared that a target of starting work on 10m socialhousing units this year was 98% September alone, work began on units—more than twice the number of private homes America began building last central government is not just trying to woo the also sees the project as a way of pepping up the economy at a time of global year’s target represents a 70% increase in the construction of social housing pared with 2010(see chart).In March the government announced a goal of pleting 36m units by three people on average live in one flat, this would be the equivalent of building new housing for the bined populations of Britain and statecontrolled newspapers have, however, been airing surge in construction has been pared by a few mentators to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s, when local governments vied with one other in their increasingly implausible claims of soaring output.“This kind of farce is showing signs of making a eback”, said a columnist in Panyu Daily, a newspaper in the southern province of September alone, others noted, Guangdong’s reported fulfilment of its quota for the year increased from 66%(the country’s lowest rate)to 96%, thanks to work started on another 291,000 article published by , a news portal, said many analysts were wondering whether Guangdong had massaged its year’s target is for work to begin on another 10m units(roughly the number of mercial housing units sold nationwide last year).But Zheng Siqi of Beijing’s Tsinghua University worries whether the building boom is central government, she reckons, is only paying about 1020% of the construction costs, which officials say will total around trillion yuan($204 billion)for 10m needs to provide more, Ms Zheng month the central government told local authorities that they would not be allowed to build new offices for themselves if they failed to meet their might help: local governments are fond of erecting lavish pressure on them is likely to mount while Mr Li, a deputy prime minister, prepares to take over from his boss, Wen sustaining this pace for long will not be governments are well versed in frustrating central also point out that the socialhousing programme will mostly benefit urban residents, whose householdregistration certificates, or hukou, identify them as city from the countrysideusually find it difficult to get hold of such certificates, even if they have lived in a city for many local governments prefer not to hand them out, because to do so would mit them to providing the holder with the full range of welfare central government hopes the new housing will reduce public discontent over property prices, but even among urban hukou holders, many are cynical about the government’s find it difficult to assess who is qualified for the housing, given that many households disguise their true of the betterquality housing ends up in the hands of people who are clearly not entitled to visit to one socialhousing plex in eastern Beijing, Zhuxin Homes, finds several luxury cars parked around its apartment estate agent nearby offers one of its apartments for rent: a sign that the owners have more than one property and are illegally turning their social housing into a Li has stressed the importance of ensuring that social h