HKLJ (1977)
210
A J BRADBROOK
the Authority has been the building programme. Indeed, the government can be justifiably proud of the fact that by March 1975 public housing accommodated 1,743,200 of the colony's population of 4,337,000.5 A ten-year housing programme announced by the Governor in October 1972 to provide public housing for an additional 1.5 million people promises even greater emphasis on the building programme than has occurred in the past. In the words of the Governor: 'the primary task of the Authority and Housing Department must be to build fast, to build well and above all to keep on building.”
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Urfortunately, one possible corollary of such a commitment to the building programme is that the need for the Authority to recognise and respect the legal rights of persons already housed may be forgotten. An examination of the publications on public housing in Hong Kong reveals the reality of this danger. The vast majority of previous writings by the Authority, the government and academics have concentrated on the need for new and improved housing estates; nothing at all has been written on the legal relationship between the Authority and its tenants. Considering that the Authority is by far the largest landlord in Hong Kong, if not the world, this is a remarkable omission.
This article is designed to remedy this situation. More specifically, it will examine the scope and exercise of the discretionary powers of the Authority and will suggest a number of legislative and procedural reforms which would place the relationship between the Authority and its tenants on a more equitable footing than exists at present. It will be shown that if public housing tenants are to be protected adequately against the possible arbitrary exercise by the Authority of its existing discretionary powers, two major reforms will be required: first, a revised form of tenancy agreement for domestic flats, and secondly, a modification and expansion of the existing rights of appeal for aggrieved tenants. Both of these reforms will necessitate some consequential amendments to the Housing Ordinance 1973.
II THE PUBLIC HOUSING DOMESTIC TENANCY AGREEMENT
Although landlord-tenant law developed at common law many centuries before public housing became commonplace in Western
Hong Kong 1976, op cit, 236, app 28.
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LegCo Proc 1973-74 4 (Oct 17, 1973).
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