5
long-term housing policies can be formulated.
seen as
While appreciating that compulsory income declaration may help to provide information about tenants now living in our a move, to say the least, estates, I must point out that such
could be
and could the privacy of, an infringement on possibly arouse resentment from, those who do not wish to declare Furthermore, their income and are prepared to pay double rent. general information on public housing tenants'
is
kept
the by
Statistics
changes Department and is easily available.
asking tenants to
incomes and their
Housing
Section of the Thus the present proposal of
declare their income should they wish to pay the existing rent is the most practicable and least disturbing of all alternatives.
The cost-effectiveness of the recommendations has also been argued. At this point, one cannot of course say exactly how much revenue will be generated following the implementation of
the
example,
revenue in
all
tenants with
incomes for If, proposals. exceeding the Subsidy Income Level opt to pay double rent, the additional rental
of implementation the first year This is an estimate based on
on 1985 will amount to $14 million. prices. The capital costs of implementing the proposals are also estimated to be $3.3 million, with another $5.3 million for the recurrent expenses in the first year.
More
important than these
figures,
Sir,
is the
principle of fair distribution of social resources which must be achieved, provided that the costs incurred are
inconvenience
is resulted
within permissible
reasonable, the
and the
limits
social gains will benefit the majority of our community.
what we always strive for.
is A reasonable and acceptable public housing policy
assured that The Final Report has