Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1970-1971 — Page 41

previously occupied under permits issued by the Public Works Depart- ment, began to include larger industrial concerns with heavier ma- chinery. It therefore became necessary to provide resettlement factories in order to facilitate the clearance of undertakings that could not be housed in the ground floor workshops of domestic estates, but which clearly required specialized accommodation. However, since November, 1969, all eligible operators of squatter factories or workshops involved in a clearance who operated trades permissible in resettlement factory buildings, were offered appropriate resettlement factory accommoda- tion; ground floor workshops in domestic estates were no longer allocated.

76. The first of these factories was build in 1957 and since that date one single-storey and twenty-one multi-storey blocks have been built, comprising 7,861 units with about 1.9 million square feet of working space. On 31st March, 1971, 6,625 of these units were occupied by 2,063 individual concerns, an increase of 148 businesses during the year. 1,235 units remained unoccupied at the end of the year, mainly in Yuen Long and Kwai Chung. On the other hand, a severe shortage of factory space existed in the urban area. To meet clearance commitments, the department took steps to recover 345 units temporarily let to 60 tenants during 1968 and 1969 at the Kwong Tong Resettlement Flatted Factory.

77. About 89 different types of manufacture are represented in resettlement factories, a microcosm of Hong Kong's light industries. The commonest trades are metalwork, plastics, woodwork, weaving and printing. There are in all 18,800 workers employed in these factories, many of them from the neighbouring domestic resettlement estates. Once established, factories are regularly inspected by officers of the Labour and Fire Services Departments, and also by the Commerce and Industry Department when Certificates of Origin and Commonwealth Preference Certificates are required for exporting.

78. The older factory buildings, which have five floors, are similar in appearance to a residential 'H' block, while the new ones with five or seven storey are all to an 'I' pattern. In the 'H' blocks, each bay accommodate two 198 square feet units, and in the 'I' blocks the units are of 256 square feet lying three abreast in each bay. Access to each floor is by central staircase and ramp, with additional staircases at each end of the block. There are no lifts, as the intention is to reduce building cost as much as possible, consistent with functional efficiency.

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