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numbers of Class B people. Even if this be all, it is at least a step in the right direction. It may be however that the rate of departures from the slum will be counterbalanced by normal increase in population and population density in the slums will not decrease. If this prove to be the case the only remedy appears to be to increase the speed of new developments.
In a
81. It might be argued that the only effect of this process on the slums will be to produce empty houses whose owners will then be forced into Class C. very few cases this may be so but now consider the slums and their owners.
S2. The great majority of slum property is old, dilapidated, out of date in design and construction, and out worn. It is highly desirable that it should be cleared away. It's original cost was, generally speaking, less than half the cost of tenement property to-day. Those who bought the property more than twenty years ago have had time to recover the cost and provide for rebuilding. Those who have bought in recent years at boom prices have been speculators, who have hoped to make a quick sale and a profit, or who have hoped to maintain rents for old property at boom levels. These last deserve no sympathy. There remains then those who have invested in property in recent years as a genuine investment, and who bought at prices which, in accordance with present standards, would be considered reasonable. A sudden exodus from the slums would hit this class hard, but, unless enormous sums are to be spent annually on new development, it will be at least fifteen to twenty years before these new developments will even begin to affect slum rents.
83. The policy of providing low rented houses in new settlements will therefore improve the situation for a certain portion of the community and will do no harm to the remainder. An endeavour has been made to show that low rented houses are a possibility, and, if the suggestion for raising capital by the issue of housing shares proves successful, these houses can be provided at very small cost to Government and, in the long run, are likely to prove a valuable and worth while investment. The development of these new settlements is a necessary first step towards slum clearance.
84.
While the new settlements are developing can anything be done in the way of improvements in the slums themselves? Hong Kong slums are not only overbuilt but they are badly planned. The individual building lot is excessively deep and narrow fronted. Ideal improvements would entail complete clearance, replanning and rebuilding. Complete attainment of the ideal will meet with innumer- able obstacles, many of them insuperable. Economy will dictate that existing underground services must continue in use as much as possible. The presence of a new and expensive building in the middle of dilapidated property will almost certainly result in modifications of the ideal plan. It is therefore necessary, in the first place, to survey existing material conditions, and then prepare a general development plan to which re-building can be adapted as opportunity occurs.
85. It is essential that many of Class B and C people must remain in the central areas.
To effect improvements better housing must be provided for them. This task cannot be left to private enterprise unassisted, as the prospective profits would be too low to be attractive. Some central housing authority will be necessary to undertake the work. The cost of new buildings might, as in the case of new settlements, be met by the issue of housing shares, but the cost of resumption would have to be found from some other source. General revenue or some special form of tax, which cannot be passed directly onto the poor, appear to offer the only alternatives for this purpose. The erection of such buildings, with improved accommodation at lower rents, will assist in promoting competition amongst private owners, particularly those with dilapidated out-of-date property. When the mass of tenants see what can be done it may provoke them to demand, either more in return for their money, or reduced rents for what is provided.
36. Whilst many owners of old property would be only too pleased to co-operate in a comprehensive rebuilding scheme there are undoubtedly many who will do nothing, unless forced. The long narrow type of building is uneconomical and leads to overcrowding. Wider frontage and shallower depth will necessitate