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CONFIDENTIAL ##
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rangements for the residents in the floors
to be demolished
6.
As Government has unintentionally tolerated all the se buildings for an average of about three years and will almost certainly come under criticism for not taking action earlier, it is essential that fair and comparatively generous terms are offered to those directly affected in order to minimise their opposition and to win public support for Government action. It is therefore proposed that
7.
(a)
(b)
(c)
owner-occupants be offered rehousing and ex-gratia cash compensation;
non-occupant owners be offered ex-gratia cash compensation;
tenant-occupants be offered rehousing.
As regards rehousing, as the offer does not fall within normal Housing Authority practice, a special directive from HE the Governor, under Section 4(2)(f) of the Housing Ordinance Cap 283 will probably be required. Any accommodation offered should be as near as possible to the Kowloon Walled City. It is further proposed that the Housing Department should be requested to send its staff, who are experienced in detecting imposters and false claims, to carry out a speedy and unobtrusive survey in the company of the Police and staff of the City District Office, if necessary, for registration
purposes.
8. For the purposes of ex-gratia cash con.pensation it is suggested that a system should be worked out for submission to the Executive Council which would take into account policies adopted in other comparable situations as well as the special position of the Kowloon Walled City. No detailed calculations have yet been done on the funds likely to be required but if, hypothetically, compensation were based on a flat rate of $60 per sq. ft. an amount of $2m would be required for the 87 units referred to in paragraph 3 above and the total cost is likely to be somewhat higher.
9.
The above proposals might well be regarded as over generous and, if implemented, would probably create an undesirable precedent vis-a-vis treatment presently accorded to applicants on the waiting list, people vacated from dangerous buildings and compensation rates for pre-war tenement buildings and squatter clearances etc. But as the residents would be completely deprived
of good class accomn.odation and as the flat owners have all paid substantial amounts of money for property in an area where Government intervention has never been expected, it is thought that they represent the minimum, Government could expect to get away with without massive and organised opposition from those directly affected. Indeed, when set against the background of the safety of some 30,000 people in and around the City and unlimited liability for aircraft accidents, as implied by DCA in previous correspondence, these pain- ful prices are considered worth paying.
G.F. 323
CONFIDENTIAL
/Technical...
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