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1. We would not be allowing a single person into the U.K.
who could not come here now under existing regulations. We would merely be allowing them to remain in H.K. while clocking up their 4 years' "residence" here which is what we want.
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2. Although "discriminating in favour of the rich" we are
not being more discriminatory than at present - and it is the "rich" that present the immediate problem since these are the people who are actually able to leave now - for the U.K. or elsewhere.
3
The £150,000 cut-off limit in fact catches a large part of the executive and managerial class. In order to keep them in H.K. many firms might lend them the money on condition that they stay in H.K.
4. It removes the impossible task of trying to choose
between different executives or managers - a job neither the Hong Kong Government nor employers could do and which defies legal definition. "The market" would decide.
5. By definition none of the people concerned would be a
burden on the U.K. On the contrary they would have to invest here.
6. Once they have obtained residence status in 4 years' time
they might come here but they can come here now, and the scheme would at least have kept them in H.K. for four more years.
3.7.89.