It functions as a commercial enterprise, and although rents are kept as low as possible they must be sufficient to cover all its expenditure. It receives no subsidies as such, but Crown Land is allocated at one-third of the estimated market value, and loans are provided by Government from the Development Fund at a low rate of interest. Government maintains general control over the Authority's activities, and all its housing schemes must receive the prior approval of Government.
POLICY
18. It was not at any time intended that the Authority should have a monopoly of providing low-cost housing, and private development continues to receive every encouragement. A number of the larger business concerns have constructed quarters for their employees, and schemes of this sort are aided by the grant of land on favourable terms. Government itself has for some years operated a scheme to assist local officers to build their own homes on a co-operative basis: some of these schemes have now been completed, and many others are under way. In addition, voluntary bodies, which are aided finan- cially and allocated land under the same conditions as the Housing Authority, are making significant contributions to a solution of the problem. Among these the Hong Kong Housing Society has so far played the principal role, and has already housed many thousands of people.
19. So far the Authority's energy has been directed to the planning, construction, and management of housing estates of a conventional, municipal character, albeit on a substantial scale. To this end it is developing vacant sites with the type of accommodation thought to be most needed, at widely varying rents, suited to the requirements and rent-paying capacity of the various types of applicant likely to be encountered. In order not to sterilize what vacant land there is available by cheap single-storey housing (as was done in the early days of resettle- ment of squatters), vertical development, in the shape of multi-storied flats, has been accepted as the only practicable solution to Hong Kong's urban housing problem.
20. This is not the ideal form of dwelling, and is relatively expensive to construct: in addition the maximum densities permitted in the United Kingdom and elsewhere must be considerably exceeded if sufficient accommodation is to be provided with the limited land resources avail- able. Nett densities of 1,500 or more persons to the acre (which would be regarded as slum densities elsewhere in the world) have had to be
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