Sir,
Copy of letter of 13th March 1970 from the
Chairman of the Housing Board
Annex D to XCR(70)303
Conversion of Resettlement to Government
Low Cost Housing - Management Experiment
As you will recall, one of the recommendations made by the Housing Board in its report for the period 1.4.67 to 31.3.68 was that the Commissioner for Housing should undertake the management of a new Mark VI Resettlement estate as an experiment to determine whether it might be practicable to convert Resettlement to a form of Government Low Cost Housing.
2.
Following endorsement of this recommendation by Government, the Commissioner for Housing and the Commissioner for Resettlement have now recommended to the Board that the 14 blocks of Pak Tin Estate still to be constructed should be used for purposes of this experiment, subject to (i) minor non-structural alterations of the six blocks of the Mark VI Resettlement design for which contracts have been let and (ii) the last eight blocks being consturcted on the lines of the current Government Low Cost Housing design. (This latter proposal coincides, as you know, with the recommendation made in the Board's latest report that, for future Resettlement estates the standard and finish should be the same as for Government Low Cost Housing).
3.
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Pak Tin Estate will probably be used very largely to relieve overorowding. in the nearby Shek Kip Mei Estate, that is, it will be used to rehouse people who have become accustomed to the Resettlement style of management over a good many. years. In the circumstances the Board considers that it is important to emphasise that Pak Tin will not be a Resettlement estate and, accordingly, any measures which can be taken to distinguish it from a Resettlement estate will be of value in establishing a new tenant relationship. Ideally it would have been preferable from this point of view if all the blocks could have been of the Low Cost Housing type but it has to be accepted that the first six blocks, for which contracts have been let, will be of the Mark VI Resettlement design. However, to duplicate as far as possible the features of the Government Low Cost Housing design where these differ from Resettlement and thus facilitate the application of common management standards, it is recommended that the wooden window shutters provided in the Resettlement Mark VI design should be replaced by glass louvres and that a
The Hon. The Colonial Secretary,
Colonial Secretariat,
Central Government Offices, Hong Kong.
/cost