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Government quarters would be liable to pay a full economic
We would in the first
rent up to 15% of their salaries.
place point out that the adoption of this maximum of 15% results in an anomaly as compared with the African scales
on which these new salaries were based. In most of them
the maximum of the analogous African scale was £1,000 plus free quarters and in view of the fact that free quarters were not being provided in Hong Kong an addition of 15% was made giving a total salary of £1,150 exclusive of
residential allowance. It is obvious that if a charge for rent at the rate of 15% of £1,150 is made the officer
will be worse off than if he were receiving £1,000 actual
salary and free quarters. The proper percentage in order to reduce the actual salary, after paying for quarters,
to the African scales would be 13%.
7.
We considered whether it would be practicable
to prescribe economic rents for each individual Government
house or flat subject to some over-riding maximum. We came to the conclusion, however, that such procedure would
lead to great difficulties in allotment.
Government
quarters are very far from being uniform and their
theoretical "economic rents" might vary very widely. There would be a danger of the more expensively rated
houses being occupied by junior officers whose actual rent would be limited by the percentage provision while senior officers would choose the more lowly rated houses producing rents less than the actual percentage for which they might
be liable. We have therefore concluded that it would be
preferable to apply a fixed percentage to all officers on
the new terms occupying Government quarters and we recommend
that the percentage should be 12% in the case of unfurnished
quarters and 13% in the case of furnished.