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HOUSING REVIEW NEEDED
**
Wednesday, August 2, 1972
The Acting Colonial Secretary, the Hon. M.D.A. Clinton, said today
that the present situation regarding the control of housing in Hong Kong clearly
needed reviewing "to see how we can best undertake the vast tasks which still
lie ahead".
He said that because there was little land available in the urban
areas this mainly involved building in the New Territories, especially at Tsuen
Wan and Kwai Chung and in the new towns of Castle Peak and Sha Tin.
Mr. Clinton was replying in the Legislative Council to a question by
the Hon. H.M.G. Forsgate who had asked if the Government would confirm that
the Urban Council, when re-organised on April 1, 1973, would continue to play a
substantial part in low-cost housing and resettlement.
He said that as proposals were still being worked out he could not be
specific at this stage, but "personally I think that Urban Councillors should
continue in one way or another to be involved fairly substantially in these
matters,"
Mr. Clinton pointed out that the White Paper on the future of the Urban
Council, while noting its earlier view that all forms of housing should be placed
under one department controlled by the Council, commented that the size, complexity
and colony-wide nature of the housing problem seem to be arguments in favour of
severing the Council's present connection with housing matters rather than
extending it".
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