CONFIDENTIAL #F
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(c) Low-incom households still on the waiting list,
particularly those paying a commercial rent, hope that they will b allocated, before too long, sum: public housing unit charging a cheap rent and reasonably conveniently sit atci so that they lo not have to spend too much on transport. They would value and appreciate this much more than any form of public assistance. (a) host people who have been enjoying very cheap rent for
the past 10 or 15 years in public housing have taken this for granted. They know only too well that, even with the increases, the rents are still much cheaper than market rents, but they are not interested in such comparisons and son. of them believe that cheap bent is their entitlement as part of their "resettlement rights". They are concerned about a future in which the rental burden will become progressively heavier when they have no security or guarantee about their income. People in such a frame of mind are not inclined to think that the Government is being run in their interest but on the contrary, readily susceptible to media opinion which has at all times ben critical of price increases, and is fond of suggesting that they have come about in a pattern."
(t)
Such notions tend to increase the doubts amongst families which are usually least well-informed or able to comprehend Government policies and measures, whether a colonial government would really care about their situation.
There is stron: suspicion that the Government is hand in glove with major capitalist interests, particularly expatriate finance groups, protecting them in their profit naking schemes. This distrust played an important part in agitating public feeling over issues such as the proposed increase in telephone charges, and in electricity tariff. The big question was: 'Why should a public utility already making profit, be allowed to increase fires?" Increases mentioned included public
transport fres, electricity charges, water charges, urban council licences, public housing rents and rates.
* Government intervention in these issues was well received, but the suspicions
still remain.
COMEINEMIT
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