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LAND AND HOUSING
Department, the Resettlement Department and the Public Works Department. Mem- bership of the authority is made up of eight Urban Councillors, five other unofficials and six official members, all appointed by the Governor.
It is serviced by a new Housing Department, also formed in April, which is the result of an amalgamation of the Resettlement Department and the housing division of the Urban Services Department. The Housing Ordinance and Resettlement Ordin- ance which set out the jurisdiction of the two public bodies were repealed and replaced by the Housing Ordinance 1973.
With Hong Kong's grave shortage of land and almost every available hillside carved into housing sites it is inevitable that the bulk of new estates must be in the New Territories. But providing new towns is not enough. To be acceptable to their inhabitants there must be good communications with the old urban areas, good social facilities, and employment.
With this in mind the new towns will have the essentials of modern life-schools, clinics, parks, playgrounds, markets, police, fire and ambulance stations, and com- munity centres. There will also be sites for private and commercial development.
Under the programme three such towns are to be developed in the New Terri- tories. The largest, Tsuen Wan, including Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi will have a population of more than 670,000. The second largest at Tuen Mun will have a popu- lation of about 464,000 while Shatin has a planned population of 475,000.
To cope with demands in the coming years, the Housing Department is expand- ing its construction branch. A recruitment campaign was launched overseas and locally for architects, building services engineers and structural engineers. To achieve the 10-year target it is inevitable that modern building techniques will have to be adopted to save time and labour. Detailed planning and implementation of the housing pro- gramme is well under way, but no dramatic increase in the production of public housing is expected until 1976.
Three new urban housing projects have been started or were taking shape during 1973. These are Oi Man, Ha Kwai Chung and Hammer Hill estates. The first phase of Oi Man is nearing completion and should be ready for occupation in early 1974. Site formation of Ha Kwai Chung is in hand and the first living units should be ready by mid-1975. Twelve other public housing schemes are currently under construction or development by the Public Works Department and they should produce about 88,000 individual units in the next two years.
All government housing estates, previously known as resettlement, government low-cost housing or Housing Authority estates are now officially known as public housing estates. For management purposes these estates are divided into two groups. Group 'A' estates comprise what were formerly known as Housing Authority estates and low-cost estates. Group 'B' estates are all former resettlement blocks. During the year a total of 33,499 people were rehoused; 16,948 into group 'A' estates and 15,551 into group 'B' estates.