CONFIDENTIAL
機密
8
3
XCC(75)60
The compensation provisions in the Crown Lands Resump- tion Ordinance (Chapter 124) exclude any element in a compensation payment "in respect of any use of the land which is not in accordance with the terms of the 'Crown lease"". This general stipulation affects awards in respect of all Crown leases resumed and it is not proposed to change this. The Secretary for the New Territories proposes the adoption of the system used in New Kowloon, whereby the compensation on surrender, whether in cash, or as a surrender value for calculating a future exchange premium, is assessed in two parts. The first part will be compensation payable under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, and the second an ex-gratia payment to bring the total to the agreed level of compensation. For example, if the agricultural value is $3 per square foot, the ex-gratia compensation will be $7 per square foot.
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As virtually none of the owners of land in the New Terri- tories towns have accepted the low level of cash compensation now offered, the actual cash cost of resumption of land has been very small, An increased payment on the lines proposed may mean that more land- owners will accept the cash offer rather than opt for an exchange. Although this will result in greater cash payments, provided the land market rises, the increased value of the developed land will accrue to Government rather than to the holder of the right to an exchange. The Secretary for the New Territories has estimated that assuming a steady increase of 10% per annum in building land values, and that there were 100 per cent acceptance of the cash offer of $10 a square foot for agri- cultural land, the theoretical financial benefit of a cash compensation system would be about $252 million over the next 12 years. But this calculation takes no account of the present delays in making land available, or the increasing difficulties which may be experienced in selling short term leases of land in the New Territories in the 1980s.
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Because it is considered that the increased cash compensa- tion alternative cannot now be avoided, both in equity and because failure to offer it will result in serious delays in the New Towns deve- lopment programme, a more meaningful figure is the estimate of additional expenditure as a proportion of total development costs. Expenditure of $2,022 million in the three new towns is forecast for the three years 1975/1978. The estimated maximum compensation payable for land in the new towns during this period is approximately $153 million, but the precise amount will depend on the number of land owners who opt for cash rather than an exchange. The additional ex- penditure will have to be absorbed within the total estimate and may result in adjustments having to be made to the development programme.
CONFIDENTIAL #2
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