THE
DOUSING
GOVERNOR'S PRE-BUDGET
PRE-BUDGET ADDRESS
It may be asked why it should have taken two years to resellle 15,000 persons by nommal process wherina 50.000 will have been resettled withis a quarter of the Ume after the Shell Kip Mei disaster. The main reason 18 because In the Shak Kip Mei opera- tion, clearance, site preparation. and screening were much simpler How- aver, resettlement. could be specded up. and the most effective way of speeding it up is now being actively considered by the Urban Counell and Government departments concerned.
If we had unlimited money and unlimited lund the problem would be very much simpler. As II id we have pelther, which makes it that much more difcut. Actually we haven't done so badly, for if we take 300,000. well over one third will have been rehoused by the time the Shek Kip Mel operation is completed We cer tainly shinin't bave made such
Excerpts of interest to architects and the building industry from the adilcess of ALE. the Governor. Sir Alexander Grantham, GCMG. in the Legislative Council on the 3rd March 1954. preceding the introduction of the Colony's Budget for 1954-55.
will continue simaltanrously, becausz tled. The reason for this mowizer is I turn now to our greatest social we want all the assistance we can mainly two-hidd dulay tu clearance problem, that is housing, with which get. Belore. however. approval or of squatter areas because the people is connected resettlement. Practical Government assistance is given to cannot be cleared unless there is ly every civilised country in the world schemes of other agencies It is essen- mumewhere else for them in ga, and suffers from a shortage of low cost tal that we should be satisfied that the slowness of screening. If the housing. We are not unique in this the particular scheme, proposed is a screening is to be effecure and Irve What makes our difficulties Excep- sound
one. The legislation to from rackets we have necesarily tu tonal is the proportion of our total establish the Housing Authority is be carinl, and that takes time
IL population which is lying without already in draft form and will. I may be necessary to iertase t proper housing and the fact that hope, shortly be presented to this screening staff. sueb a large percentage is not our Council own people but the efflux of » neigh- One thing we should bear in mind bouring country where thousands is that low cost housing either by the more are waiting to pour into the Housing Authority or by the other houses as fast as. or even faster than. organisations which receive financial we build them. Consequently pro- ald from government, whether by gress here is bound to be even slower direct grant or by lean. Is subsidised than it has been in most other housing. This means that it will countries. In addition we have the compete with private jow cost hous further disadvantage that land here ing. We do not want to get to the la minch scarcer than it is elsewhere, stage where subsidised housing will As regards the size of the problem. kill private housing. However, this It is estimated that at least 360,000 is unlikely to happen for a long, lung people should be rehoused. It is un- time, as there is so much to be done. necessary for me to stress the scar- Meanwhile we shall have to devote city of land in Hongkong. That is the great part of our Development 30 weil known and so obvious as to Fund to low cost housing. call for no further comment from me. It may mean that we shall have to develop satellite towns outside the urban areas, but this is also bound to be a slow process because it is no good having low cost houses If they ure too far away from the places f work of the people living in them. enough In all conscience because good progress if it hadn't been for To give some idea of the high cust about one eighth of our population the part that has been played by the of low cost housing, I would mention is living in resittioment or tolerated the latest scheme of the Hongkong areas of one kind n another. Housing Society to erect 1,000 flats kt Hunghom, This does not sound like a tremendously large project. but when I tell you that the site pre- paration will cost $2 millions it does give one some idea of bow much more diicult the problem is here than it is in other places. Inciden- tally, the $2 millions is a grant from the Colonial Development and Wel- fare Fund. In addition to this a loan or $74 millions from our own Devel- opment Fund has been promised to the Housing Society for the erection of the flats.
SQUATTERS
Resettlement of squatters is an- other serious problem allied to low cost housing, but this is out quite so difficult because it is shorter range and the numbers involved are not 60
Nunetheless it great.
is difficult
It is sometimes sald that we are doing too much for the squatters. giving them better conditions than the tenement dweller gets. It should. however. be remembered that what we are doing for the squatter is not done primarily for his benefit but for the neft of the community at large The purposes ΟΙ squatter clearance and resettlement are three fold; finally to put an end to the appalling fires: secondly, to eradicate the risks to health and good order which the illegal squatter coloutes present. and thirdly, to free land for In out of town sites there would the large scale organised low cost be lacking water and similar services housing schemes which are the unly which already exist in urban areas way to relieve, overcrowding in the such as Hunghom. These services tenements. would have to be provided at no Uitle cost. It is a difficult but not an in- soluble problem We have got lo feel our way. At the same time we should reallge, as we all do realine. that I should be pressed on as rapidly as possible. We are gaining experience all the time and we should not throw that experience overboard.
It must also be borne in mind that we do not know precisely how many squatters there are and that as last as squatter areas are cleared the work of squatter patrole in keeping these areas cleared la bound to in- crease. An Indieation of the magni- tude of these problems is given by the fact that during the period April to December. 1953. no less than 7,200 structures were removed by squatter patrols from roof-tops De from pre- viously cleared treas
HOUSING AUTHORITY That is why it is intended that when the Housing Authority. to which I referred last year. is set up the Authority will not, at any rate Progress in squatter resettlement to begin with by the exclusive has been steady but slower than we yrganisation to deaf with low gest should have wished So far nuiy sude housing. Schemes or other orgmisa- $5.000 squatters, exclusive of the Shek tors such as the Housing Society Kip Mel fire victims, have been reset-
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Settlers Corporation and ofher volun- tary organisations In erecting reset- tlement houses. The Colony owes them a debt of gratitude,
THE AIRPORT
Another possible claimant on the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund is the proposed new airport et Kai Tak, and 1 regret that Govern- ment is not get able to put the pro- posed scheme before this Council, as there we some points still to be cleared with the Secretary of State and through hum with the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. Suffice bo say that the present scheme envisages u single runway Jutting out Into Kowinon Bay with a length of 7,500 feet and a width of 700 or 750 leet
The estunated cost of this is some- where around 690 millions which mcludes $3 millions for dredging the approaches in the western end of the harbour This is necessitated by the adverse effect that a runway jutting nut into the Kowloon Bay will have on the typhoon anchorage 121 Kow- loon Bay, and we camo afford to jopardise the burbuar. for without the harbour Hongkong would not bị Hongkong. As soon as we are in a position to du su the relevant. pavers und proposals Will be laid before this Council. It we want & gond atport it must not by at thị ugdefiae of the harbunt, although a reasonable cum- promise is possible and we must also be prepared to pay for t