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Note No. 2
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VISIT OF PARLIAMENTARY UNDER SECRETARY, MR. ROYLE, TO HONG KONG, OCTOBER 1970
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कीन
HOUSING
Problems for Consideration
About 1.7 million people (40% of the total population) live
in Government and Government aided housing: it is the policy of
the Government gradually to shift the emphasis of its housing
programme from resettlement to Government low cost housing.
Accordingly, as the standard of living rises (even now many of
those resettled have T/V sets and/or refrigerators in their
rooms)so the Government should be gradually relieved of the
burden of providing cheap housing.
2.
Meanwhile there are formidable problems to be overcome.
Improvement of conditions in resettlement estates
3.
Many of the earlier resettlement estates were rushed up
without provision.being made for the necessary ancillary services,
eating places and markets in particular. There was an urgent
need at that time to provide basic accommodation. Those compelled
to occupy these estates seem to have little or no desire to keep
the buildings and their surroundings tidy; in the absence of
planned facilities (e.g. shops, eating places) hawkers abound.
As a result, some of these estates are squalid in the extreme.
4. As an experiment one old block was recently revamped, rooms
were enlarged and sanitary arrangements generally improved but
at a cost of $600,000 for half the number of people who originally
lived there.
5.
It is becoming more and more difficult to find suitable
sites for building within reach of established factories,
/particularly.....
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