TNAG-0735-FCO40-939-Policy-objective-for-the-developing-of-Hong-Kong-in-the-1980-1978 — Page 209

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and lower-middle income groups.

30,000 will be

completed this year and probably as many next. This

is a most welcome contribution.

But members should

be under no illusion about the size of the problem

we face. This year we reckon the short-fall in self-

contained living accommodation to be over 200,000 units.

Allowing for about 300,000 more households by 1985,

and assuming that the public housing programme is

maintained at the level I have indicated, and that the

private sector continues to make a substantial

contribution, the short-fall should have been eliminated

by 1985 and well before that the problem as we have

known it will have been vastly reduced. However these

figures make the traditional assumption that 60% of all

one person and two person households will share

accommodation with others. In view of the trend

towards smaller households and the rising aspirations

of our rapidly evolving society I doubt if that assumption

will continue to hold true much longer.

There may,

therefore be a case for rolling forward the Housing

Programme after 1985, albeit at a less dramatic level,

and that therefore at least sites for such a programme

should be earmarked soon.

J