}
factor. The position was to be reviewed in detail during the summer of 1955. An encouraging fact was that although rents from the multi-storey estates were running at over $11 million per annum at the end of the financial year under review, only $126 had so far had to be written off as irrecover- able arrears of rent.
CHAPTER IX
RESETTLEMENT IN TEMPORARY STRUCTURES
49. The decision to undertake the construction of perman- ent multi-storey resettlement buildings at the public expense meant that the main stream of resettlement would henceforth be into the new multi-storey estates. It did not mean that resettlement in cottages or hut-type structures would cease, and indeed over 12,000 former squatters were resettled in such structures during the year under review.
50. The policy proposed by the Urban Council and accepted by the Government was as follows:-resettlement should be either in completely permanent structures or in completely temporary structures, and temporary structures should be permitted only in the remoter areas where the land is less valuable and is unlikely to be needed for permanent development for some years to come. Home ownership should not be per- mitted except in the sense that a person resettled in a temporary structure might own the materials of which his structure was built.
51. This policy is best explained by illustrations of its application. The site of the Shek Kip Mei fire lies near the main urban area of Shamshuipo and the land, formed to level, might be worth as much as $50 a square foot in the open market. It would not be in the public interest to allow this valuable land to be wasted and sterilized by cottages or similar single-storey structures, and the whole area has been or will
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