XN000022-1973-08-20 — Page 4

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Monday, August 20, 1973

BETTER DEAL FOR ESTATE SHOPS

Shopkeepers in the older public housing estates are to get a

better deal. The Housing Department is asking nearly 11,000 shopkeepers

and restaurant owners who now let premises on a month-to-month basis

to sign long-term tenancy agreements.

Under the old system, where premises were let on a tenancy-card

basis, the tenancy could be terminated at any time by landlord or

tenant at a month's notice. The new tenancy agreement which shopkeepers

are being asked to sign will be for two years in the first instance,

renewable for another three years.

A letter is being sent to each individual shop tenant setting

out the advantages of the new system. In it, the Deputy Director of

Estate Management, Mr. Ralph Husband, explains that the long-term

agreement will enable tenants to better plan their business.

"It does not mean that after five years' time your tenancy will

Normally if a tenancy is satisfactory

be terminated and your shop recovered.

to both parties it will be renewed, although the terms may be varied.

According to Mr. Husband present shop rents included a considerable

subsidy which made them much lower than those in the private sector.

Under the monthly tenancy system, rents could be increased

at any time but with fixed tenancies the rent can not be varied until

the tenancy has expired. Once the agreements are signed, no rent re-

adjustment will be made before December 1975.

/New tenants