XN000022-1973-10-17 — Page 13

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Wednesday, October 17, 1973

HOUSING SHORTAGE MUST BE ELIMINATED

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GOVERNOR

The inadequacy and scarcity of housing in Hong Kong was today described by the Governor as "one of the major and most constant sources of friction and unhappiness between the government and the population.'

"It is therefore vital that we press on with our target of self- contained homes for all in a reasonable environment, by the fiscal year 1982/83," Sir Murray told the Legislative Council.

The only sure cure, he stressed, was to end the scarcity. The

primary task of the new Housing Authority was to "build fast, to build

well and above all to keep on building."

He said the Housing Authority and the Housing Department had inherited a "lean period" but they aimed to work up to a "plateau of production" in 1976/77 of new homes for 200,000 a year and to maintain

this rate.

However, he pointed out that they had to do this without making

excessive demands on the labour market.

The Governor said the Secretary for Housing would be speaking

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about this and other problems facing the new authority. "These include, depressingly, the need for resite areas to tide over the lean years the authority has inherited."

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