1978/79
1979/80
1980/81
1981/82
Area to be resumed
(sq ft)
23 m
15m
15m
10m
(a)
if all owners retain
new exchange
entitlements
$310m
$203m
$203 m
$135m
(b)
if no owners retain
new exchange
entitlements
$620m
$406m
$406m $270m
(c)
if 60% of the owners
(SNT's prediction)
retain new exchange entitlements
$43 4m $284m $284m $189m
Transitional Problems
8
The adoption of new rates and the package offer proposed by the Working Group will raise the further problem of whether it would be right to offer the new compensation rate to land-owners who either have Letters B awaiting reply, or who have already surrendered their land on Letters B and are awaiting the opportunity to tender for an exchange. Since the announcement of the establishment of the Working Group some 12.5 million square feet of leased land have been gazetted for resumption, and it is evident from the attitude of many of the land- owners affected that they are expecting a better offer than that contained in the Letters B issued to them. This is particularly so, since a leak in the press revealed the approximate rates recommended in the Working Group's report. Various dates for back-dating for compensation rates have been considered, e. g. 1st November 1977, the approximate date of the appointment of the Working Group, or 1st April 1978, the beginning of the current financial year, but all would produce hard luck cases and complaints, particularly as there has been a continuous resumption programme spanning the relevant period in all the main development areas. For this reason the Secretary for the New Territories has proposed that the Government should consider making an offer of the new rates of compensation for agricultural land to any letter B holder regardless of the date of his exchange letters. To make such an offer would of course raise the minimum value of any letter B to around $27 per square foot. But it is probable that no pre- 1976 letter B would be surrendered, as the prospects of a more profitable exchange or later private sale would be seen to be increased by the changes in the system. Moreover it is not thought that the owners of the larger holdings of letter B would be attracted by the offer, as most of these owners are much more interested in land than in money at the present time. The Secretary for the New Territories does not, therefore, expect that more than 20% of the existing Letters B
CONFIDENTIAL