TNAG-0669-FCO40-818-Policy-on-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 89

CONFIDENTIAL

MEMO

To Deputy Director, Estate Management

From............Assistant Director, West.

Ref. (57)....in... HD 4/254/76 (TC 35/77).

Tel. No.

3-0502249

Date

15th March 1977.

G.F. 73 A

Your Ref....

in..

dated

Campaign re Rents

I refer to S. for H.'s memorandum dated 4th March

in which he requests an up-to-date briefing of the state-of-play by 17th March of the campaign being run to persuade tenants not to pay their rents.

2.

In this connection I am happy to be able to report that this campaign is not doing very well, the situation, on estates, being as under :-

(i)

Lai King Estate

Pamphlets advising tenants not to take rent payment very seriously were distributed by the Tsuen Wan, Tai Wo Hau and Kwai Chung Ecumenical Community Development Project late in December 1976. A protest meeting concerning high rents was organized by the same group at Lai King Community Hall on 25.1.77 and was attended by some 300 people, about half of whom were children. At the meeting one lady, whose rent in fact was fully paid up, advised others not to pay, saying that she, herself, had not paid for three months. During the month of January, however, due to the efforts of the estate staff only one tenant refused to pay or contact the estate office. During February there were two arrears cases, but these were unrelated to the campaign, being normal "hard luck" cases.

Present indications are that the group have given up on Lai King estate, the campaign having been a rather dismal failure.

(ii) Kwai Shing II, III Estate (Kwai Shing West)

In early December 1976, the Project Director of the Tsuen Wan Tai Wo Hau and Kwai Chung Ecumenical Development Project wrote to the Housing Manager of Kwai Shing Estate (Sites II and III) asking that rents should be fixed according to the means of individual tenants. On 9th December 1976, a group of residents led by the Project Director staged a demonstration at the Housing Authority Headquarters. At the same time a petition signed by twenty residents was handed to the Department.

/2.