4
Thursday, November 19, 1970
the architect directly in charge of building the last 450 Resettlement
Blocks: I would also mention the members of the Resettlement Department
who have supervised the movement of more than a million people from their makeshift homes and who have the direct responsibility for the day-to-day
management of the estates.
"So much for the past. But today we are looking equally to the
future. New buildings now under construction and included in the
programme for the next six years will include well over 400,000 more
resettlement units and these new estates will be better provided with
community facilities, commercial and other, than has been possible in
the past.
"Furthermore the design of the domestic flats in these future
estates is to be identical with that used in the hitherto quite separate
low-cost housing programno. This is a new factor which will give us a
new element of flexibility in our overall housing policy.
"Apart from the building of new ostates we are aware of the
deterioration and lack of facilities in sore of the older estates which
were built in those days of emergency.
"An experimental conversion of one block has been completed and
it is proposed to attempt a wider approach at Shek Kip Mei the first estate
built and in most need of attention. It will take time, much patient
effort and the willing co-operation of the present tenants of the estate
who will be displaced during the process of improvement and by the
introduction of better space standards.
"There are still many problems.
Despite the immense effort
we have put into housing there are still many squatters upon our hillsides.
/"The management