29
Wednesday, June 6, 1973
OSWALD CHEUNG CRITICAL OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS IN RENT LEGISLATION
L
The Hon. Oswald Cheung today expressed serious reservations about
proposed long term measures to control the rent situation in Hong Kong and
took the government to task for not making available more land for development.
Speaking in the Legislative Council, Mr. Cheung said two features
of the proposed measures struck him as being "particularly objectionable".
The first was that the proposals aimed at protecting "even the rich
in their indulgence of luxury."
His other objection was that no landlord, he felt, would be permitted
even to charge his tenant what the Commissioner of Rating and Valuation
determined as the fair market rent of the premises.
The truth is," he said, "that, unintentionally, we have created a
privileged class of tenants, who naturally clamour for extended and further
controls of rent when they sense danger of losing their privileges,"
These tenants, he added, had been enjoying a standard of accommodation
at what have been rents far below free market values, and substantially below
fair market rentals.
In his opinion, there was a danger of creating a larger class of
privileged tenants, and a danger of driving private enterprise away from
providing domestic accommodation.
"We may well be right in giving temporary relief to those sections
of our community that are least able to bear extra burdens," Mr. Cheung said,
"but I entirely disown that we have an obligation to protect the rich."
/Mr. Cheung