From The Minister
O
HKK 360/2
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51
- 9 JAN1979
DESK OFMCER
INDEX
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
PEGITRY
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Action
en
3 January 1979
по
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Copy to Hong Kong,
with reference to thes telegroom
No.286 Saving.
Dear Richard,
JEB/1
In my letter of 16 November I acknowledged receipt of your letter about the problem of the owners in Northern Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, whose factories were to be demolished to make way for the new Mass Transit Railway. I have now received details of the case from the Hong Kong Government.
The 22 factories in question were among the 472 squatter factories that had been illegally established on an area of Crown land that the Hong Kong Government now require for the construction of the Tsuen Wan extension of the Mass Transit Railway.
The Hong Kong Government's policy towards squatter factories was laid down in 1976, when they carried out a survey of all squatter structures on Crown land and agreed that all such structures then in existence should be allowed to remain until the land they were occupying was required for development. As soon as the Government needs to use the land, the owners of squatter factories are offered either re-siting in Government flatted factories or ex gratia cash compensation if, for any reason, the factories concerned are not suitable for flatted accommodation. The 22 factories that were the subject of your letter came into the latter category, since they all required either heavy floor loadings or high clearance, or carried on trades which for some other reason made flatted accommodation impossible.
Following representations by the owners of the squatter factories in Northern Tsuen Wan, the Hong Kong Government agreed at the end of November to increase the rates of ex gratia compensation by 10 per cent. The owners of the 22 factories will between them receive total compensation of Hong Kong dollars 9.3 million (ie over £1 million).
The factory owners have suggested that, since they cannot be accommodated in Government flatted factories, they should be
/re-sited