114. A number of rooms on the ground floors of resettlement estates has been made available for use as small workshops, but it was impossible to allow in these rooms the use of power-driven machinery or other processes likely to disturb the residents in the block. After consultation between the Labour Department, the Department of Commerce and Industry, the Public Works Department and the Resettle- ment Department, it was therefore decided to build a resettlement factory as a pilot project, to provide space for those concerns which occupied land urgently required for permanent development but which were not in a financial position either to purchase land or to pay the rents demanded for space in factory buildings erected on a commercial basis. In general appearance the factory building is not unlike a large resettlement 'H' block but there are important structural differences. The weight is borne on columns spaced at twelve feet intervals. Each floor of each wing consists of 9,000 sq. ft. of open space separated by a staircase and a ramp in the centre, and with additional staircase access at each end of the wings. Each floor is divisible into units of 198 sq. ft. the clear space between each of the bearing members-and each of these units is the minimum area which can be allocated to any one concern. A verandah running round the building provides access to all units. The connecting link between the wings is used to house the communal latrines and wash spaces. The roofs of each of the wings provides drying space, a proportion of which is covered over, for the use of the factories housed in the building.
115. The rentals payable vary according to the floor on which accommodation is held, ranging from $75 a month for a ground floor unit to $45 a month for a unit on the top floor. It is estimated that receipts from rents will not only cover all recurrent costs but will provide for the recovery of the original capital expenditure, in- cluding all engineering works, plus the value of the land at $25 a square foot, in twenty one years with interest at five per cent. The allocation of space is based on the floor area previously occupied by the concern for manufacturing purposes, computed as a multiple of the basic unit of 198 sq. ft. Thus a factory formerly occupying 1,200 sq. ft. would be considered eligible for six units, while one occupying 350 sq. ft. would be allocated only two units. The maximum allocation to any one factory has been set at ten units, since the purpose of the factory was to provide accommodation for small concerns only and it was felt that any factory requiring more than 2,000 sq. ft. should not be provided for.
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