NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
DRAFT
Type 1 +
From
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
To:-
SOCIAL SERVICES:
HOUSING
Telephone No. & Exy
Department
Despite its achievements in the field of housing
& resettlement the Hong Kong Government still face
the formidable problems of satisfactorily rehousing
the squatter population and/refurbishing manyhof the
older estates which have fallen into decay. re
concerned that there shotld be ne opmplasene
2. This year's budget allots $192 million for Housing which is one million Aess than last year (this is one
of the very few Heads which shows a decrease). In the
subsequent Budget/debate bwo Members referred to the
need for more housing, and another called for a review
of policy on the resettlement of squatters with
hopsi
particular regard for :
(a) the oldest resettlement esta tes
(b) squatters in the New Territories, who now number
270,000 In the past 5 years only 6% of the total
number resettled were from the New Territories, he aimed)
3.
The Commissioner for Resttlement
in reply has
stated that preliminary proposals for modernising the
older type estates have been drawn up at a cost of
$700 million. A start will be made in the Shek Kip Mei
state which contains 60,000 people.
140 In reply to the criticism that squatters were only
moved when the land was needed for development, the
Commissioner drew attention to the fact that since 1954
/....184,000
(885363) Dd. 896639 1,000м 8/71 St.S.