TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 18

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meanwhile risen above the prescribed limit.

This is

very disappointing, but we have to determine income

criteria and stand by them in order that those in

greatest need receive first attention, until it is

possible to extend or vary the priorities.

4.

Raising

the income limit increases the number of applicants

and means that people inside the limit have to wait

longer while people with higher incomes are, as it were,

brought back into the queue. The Housing Authority

regularly reviews the income limits and since 1963

the income maximum has increased at a much faster rate

than for example the consumer price index and the index

of industrial wages. As a result, the number of eligible

households rose from 89,000 in 1973 to 223,000 in 1976.

In the context of staffing in the Civil Service,

Mr. Wong Lam had heard "in the past only one Housing

Manager was put in charge of one whole estate. But

today the same estate is under the management of several

Housing Managers and many more Assistant Housing Managers".

I have written at some length to my honourable friend

on the particular point. On the general aspect, the

Housing Authority believes that staff should be kept to

the minimum and deployed efficiently. As the judge in

"Trial by Jury" put it: "a nice dilemma we have here".

The Authority in 1973 took over the estates previousl;

administered by the Resettlement Department, and the scope

and standard of management had to be improved. This

required, inevitably, increases in staff. I assure my

honourable friend, however, that the Authority keeps a

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