Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1964-1965 — Page 36

CHAPTER VIII

RESETTLEMENT FACTORIES

75. In the early days of resettlement, most areas cleared for re- development contained only domestic huts, shops and cottage industries. There was no special provision for the occasional factory that might be encountered, nor for workshops, though some of the latter were accommodated in ground floor rooms in the domestic resettlement blocks and, with certain limitations, persons engaged in cottage industries were permitted to carry on work in their domestic rooms. But in time clearance areas, especially those occupied under permits issued by the Crown Lands and Survey Office of the Public Works Department, began to include larger industrial concerns with heavier machinery. It therefore became necessary to provide resettlement factories in order to facilitate clearances involving persons whose undertakings could not be housed in ground floor workshops in domestic estates but who clearly required alternative accommodation.

76. Since 1957 one single-storey and eleven multi-storey factory blocks have been built, comprising 4,056 units. On 31st March 3,642 of these units were occupied by 1,051 individual concerns, an increase of 181 businesses during the year. The older factory buildings are similar in appearance to a domestic 'H' block, though the four most recent ones at San Po Kong in Kowloon are all built to an 'I' pattern. Each block has five floors, but the four new 'I' blocks nearing completion at the end of March have seven storeys. Access to each floor is by a central staircase and ramp, with additional staircase access at each end of the block. There are no lifts as the intention is to reduce building costs as much as possible, consonant with functional efficiency. Each floor is divisible into units of 198 or 256 square feet. An outside verandah on each floor gives access to all units; there are communal latrines and bath-rooms. The roofs of each building are used for drying purposes. Rents are described in Chapter X and Appendix VII.

77. As a result of a revision of policy during the year, the minimum area which may be allocated to any one concern is one unit of 198 or 256 sq. ft. and the maximum is 5,000 square feet-twenty-five units in the old and twenty in the new factories. This reflects one of the two limitations which operate when clearing factories and workshops into resettlement accommodation. One of them is the size of the under- taking to be eligible for resettlement, a squatter factory must not

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