TNAG-0317-FCO40-353-Policy-of-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-problem-of-s-1971 — Page 185

8.

Moreover, in a sense, a policy of

improving the amenities in areas not needed for development goes some way towards my own idea of giving some form of title to the land they occupy to the squatters and facilitating the construction of houses of simple but acceptable design. Variants of this idea have been employed in the New Territories, under somewhat different circumstances and not infrequently under the auspices of a voluntary agency. Indeed, it is also something of a reversion to a solution tried in the urban areas in the 1950's (the so-called cottage-areas): but, when previously tried, land was in many cases used which proved later to be needed for redevelopment and the houses had to be recovered and demolished. The earlier schemes also always suffered from the flaw that they were highly wasteful of scarce land. Finally, it will not, of course, be possible to apply this idea to many areas because very often the nature of the terrain precludes building anything much more substantial than a squatter hut anyway.

The terms of grant, and the nature of the assistance to be given to build or improve houses will also need careful thought, or we shall merely find those assisted selling out for a quick capital gain and squatting somewhere else.

Nonetheless, the Board will be looking

at the feasibility of solutions along these lines

(which were those mentioned in my minute of 12th October) and some practicable variant of my proposals may, I hope, eventually emerge. It would, however, be wrong to think that the whole idea can be looked at in

all its aspects in a matter of weeks.

But if, despite the complexity of the problem, a programme to rehouse one quarter of our population in the next six year is accomplished, this will be a considerable achievement by any standards.