TNAG-0573-FCO40-706-Monitoring-of-progress-made-on-planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 166

them will suffer from financial restraint. Other restraints there are bound to be. For instance there are practical and administrative limitations to the degree of expansion of the public sector that is possible in a given period of time.

Our long term objective is to develop our programmes in line with what we expect the long term development of the economy will be able to support. But we plan in such a way that we can adjust them quickly, if necessary, to meet the unforeseen whether bad or good. Now the time is good and there is every prospect of it so continuing, therefore it behoves us, in this new and more

fortunate situation, to consider whether our plans are commensurate with our

possibilities.

HOUSING

First of all Housing. Our target is self-contained housing in a decent environment for all and within the means of all, by the early '80s.

Housing "for all" is a question of quantity. Only when we are able to provide new homes for about 200,000 people a year in the public sector will we be making the kind of impact we set out to do. In this and the next financial year we will still be under the influence of restraints imposed during the recession, and taking all Government-financed housing together, including that of the Housing Authority and the Housing Society, completions in these two years will house about 97,000 and 109,000 persons respectively. But in 1978/79 the figures will rise dramatically to 170,000 and 224,000 in '79/80. Thereafter figures well over the 200,000 mark will be maintained. The land is earmarked, the Housing Depart- ment will have the design and construction capacity, we have the finance, many of the relevant contracts are already let. The back of the problem should be broken by '84, provided all concerned maintain the pressure necessary to keep on our

targets.

None of us like the present housing situation in Hong Kong, the length of the waiting list, the numbers in the oldest type estates, in resite areas or squatter settlements or bed-spaces. Our only defence can be that we are making the maximum effort to end it that is physically and administratively possible. With the recession behind us, this I believe at last to be the case.