TNAG-0317-FCO40-353-Policy-of-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-problem-of-s-1971 — Page 176

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Mr. Laird

Hong Kong Rehousing of Squatters

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I enclose a letter I have received this morning from the Governor. It is long, analytical and refreshingly free from the prickliness which has marked our previous correspondence with him on this subject. (It seems that it often needs two or three goes on our part to get from him the sort of advice one would hope to receive at first time of asking). I have alerted Mr. Royle by copying this minute to his Private Office to the effect that we have received this letter. I have not however thought it necessary at this stage to send the letter as it stands to Mr. Royle, partly because of its length but mainly because it bristles with statistics which your Department ought to analyse before we make a formal submission. You will note that the Governor has said that he will be happy to elaborate on any of the points in the letter and there may well be some which you would want me to take up with him before we make our formal submission.

2. Certainly on a first reading I found it difficult to make a complete dove-tail of the various statistics quoted. For what it is worth however I set out below my interpretation of the main points in the letter.

3. They are that the Housing Board has put forward two proposals which are now being examined by the Hong Kong Government.

4.

These are:

(a)

The Government should plan to rehouse over 1,000,000 people (i.e. some quarter of the population) in the next six years. 360,000 of these would be dealt with by the private sector.

The Board's estimates are that at the moment some 700,000 people are "housed in temporary structures or temporary shelters" i.e. squatters.

On the face of it there is provision in the proposed six-year programme for 340,000 people in addition to those presently in temporary housing. The balance is intended to cover people at present in unsatisfactory permanent housing.

The figure of 700,000 squatters is, as you will notice, higher than the figure of 500,000 usually quoted; this is because the 700,000 include New Territories' squatters and the "traditional" figure of half a million was related to the urban areas. There is some doubt whether the 340,000 extra will in fact cover all the "unsatisfactorily housed". The Board estimated that accommodation for 500,000 people would have been required at 31 March 1970 to provide each family with its own self-contained accommodation.

/(b)

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