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LAND AND HOUSING
have been provided, the majority being operated by voluntary welfare organizations.
Three estates have blocks of self-contained flats for families who were squatters, but who were nevertheless living in squatter accommodation of a better standard than that of the ordinary resettlement rooms. These flats each have a private balcony, a kitchen, a lavatory and a shower. Rents are $45 a month for a flat of 240 square feet and $65 a month for one of 360 square feet. These blocks are of the same basic design as the ordinary resettlement blocks and the ordinary resettlement rooms are designed to be convertible into flats of this type.
Factory blocks in or near the estates provide for the resettle- ment of squatter industries that use power driven machinery, if they cannot be accommodated in the estate shops. These blocks are in units of 200 square feet, each industry cleared from a squatter site being allocated the same amount of working space, to the nearest unit, as it formerly occupied. The rent of a unit, which is calculated to recover the capital cost, including the full price of the land, in twenty one years with interest at 5%, varies from $75 a month on the ground floor to $45 a month on the top floor, inclusive of rates.
In the fourteen cottage resettlement areas, there is the same diversity and, apart from purely domestic buildings, there are factories, workshops, shops, and of course schools, clinics, and welfare projects of various kinds provided by voluntary agencies. A new community centre was built during the year at Tai Wo Hau cottage area by the Methodist Board of Missions, and a combined welfare centre and noodle factory was built by the National Catholic Welfare Conference at Chuk Yuen cottage area. In the urban areas 452 new cottages were built during the year; but there will be no further cottage development in these areas as more and more of the land they occupy is required for permanent development. Three cottage areas were partially cleared for this purpose in 1959; settlers in two more areas have been given notice of clearance and further clearances will be necessary in the near future. A new cottage area is at present being developed for squatters from Tai Pei Tau at Shui Ngau Ling, near Yuen Long in the New Territories, and 185 cottages, the gift of the Govern- ment and people of Belgium, are under construction.