Six-year plan for more exciting developments
from seven to 20 floors are used and, because of the high occupancy rates estate densities reach 1,700 to 2,000 people an acre. The estates have water supplies, electricity and mains drainage as well as lifts in blocks over seven storeys. Schools, shops and commercial and other community facilities are an integral part of the scheme.
A typical scheme is the Ngau Tau Kok Estate, to the east of Kowloon and bordering the new industrial township of Kwun Tong. The first occupants started moving in during 1967, and by the end of 1968 some 34,700 people had been housed roughly equivalent
to the population of such English towns as Salisbury in Wiltshire, or Accrington in Lancashire,
The rents at Ngau Tau Kok range from $43 a month for a four-person flat to $107 for a 10-person flat, inclusive of rates. Most of the accommodation is
in six and seven person flats at inclusive rents of $62 to $87 a month.
In the next six years the government plans to build accommodation of this type for some 400,000 people, mainly in the new development area of Kwai Chung in the New Territories. It will be served by public transport using two main roads from Kowloon including the new coastal route and the Lai Chi Kok bridge.
Here some exciting stepped-level de- velopments are foreshadowed, with such community facilities as schools, banks, shopping centres, and new to Hong Kong - large capacity lifts to carry upper terrace residents to their homes from
bus termini on the lower levels.
The management of Government Low- Cost Housing estates is conducted on the same efficient basis as that of the Housing Authority estates. The staff is specially trained by the Authority to operate the tenancy selection and appli- cation policy, to collect the rents, deal with the many day-to-day social and
practical problems which arise and ensure that accommodation is put to the best use by the people who most deserve it.
But while housing standards in Govern- ment Low-Cost Housing estates have steadily improved, and while the type and extent of amenities provided have become increasingly sophisticated, new problems have arisen to confront the planners. Not the least of these is the
growing shortage of available building land in and around the urban centres. It remains to be seen how successful the Government's attempts will be to persuade former occupants of crowded urban tenements to move to the new
estates at Kwai Chung and further afield where the new towns are being planned at Castle Peak and Sha Tin in the New Territories.
The standard of accommodation has im-
proved over the years. The estates have large areas laid out for recreation.
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