TNAG-0672-FCO40-821-Legislation-for-Crown-lands-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 143

CONFIDENTIAL #

機密

Annex A

For discussion

on 20th November 1973

XCC(73)100 Copy No.....

MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

THE HONG KONG HOUSING SOCIETY: PROPOSED SLUM CLEARANCE SCHEME

In recent months the Hong Kong Housing Society has been giving detailed consideration with Government to the possibility of undertaking slum clearance projects. It has in mind particularly those tenement areas which private redevelopment has passed by, and which are becoming increasingly dilapidated; in effect, properties in multiple ownership with some of the owners absent from Hong Kong or with unresolved succession problems. In such circumstances, private developers cannot acquire the complete title to the land which is a pre-requisite to development, and the only solution is compulsory purchase for redevelopment. The Housing Authority's massive 10 year programme precludes it from this field at this juncture (although it may well enter it later), and the entry of the Housing Society into this new sphere of activity would be a most valuable contribution to improving the Colony's housing stock.

2

While it would be the Society's intention, wherever possible, to acquire properties for redevelopment by negotiation, with the usual cash compensation being paid to the tenants and following standard Exclusion Order proceedings where appropriate, it will be essential to be able in appropriate cases to have properties resumed by Government, It is, of course, not possible to give compulsory purchase powers to a private society such as the Housing Society. The Crown Lands Office being already overstretched, the resumption and acquisition arrangements would be handled by staff of the Rating and Valuation Department. Resumed sites would then be assigned to the Society at a premium equivalent to the total cost of resumption. The Society would offer alternative accommodation to displaced tenants (as is done ia the urban renewal scheme which Government is implementing in the Hollywood Road area).

3

The first step would be for the Society to buy in the open market a new block of Dats or vacant sites in the same general area as a group of dilapidated tenements to be acquired for redevelopment, which would then be offered to the tenants of the old tenements on a rental basis. The aim would be to charge rents about two-thirds of comparable free market rents, to make the scheme both viable and attractive.

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