ENG-1955 — Page 158

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

charges. Site formation is scheduled to start in March 1956, and the flats should be ready for occupation in September 1957.

The Authority's third project, on which planning is still in the preliminary stage, will be a 15-acre site at So Uk, in Shamshuipo; and it is probable that the next scheme to be submitted for Government consideration will be one for the development of a 6-acre site on the Clearwater Bay Road, adjacent to the Airport.

The above projects represent a capital investment of well over $100,000,000. But it is already apparent that even a programme of these dimensions will fall very far short of meeting the Colony's housing needs. The serious problem of the natural increase of population is being examined, also the possibility of carrying out, or encouraging, re-develop- ment of slum property.

RESETTLEMENT

The governing factor in clearance and resettlement operations in 1955 was the major policy decision taken last year that multi-storey resettlement buildings should be built by Government and financed from public funds. An import- ant change in the design of these buildings was made early in the year, when it was decided that a seventh storey should be added, and that the flat roofs should be designed for recreation and welfare purposes.

The first of the new seven-storey estates was completed on the Tai Hang Tung fire site, north of Boundary Street, Kowloon, by the end of March, and now houses over 24,000 people. The first three blocks of a large new estate of eleven blocks at Li Cheng Uk were completed, and work started on two other estates. By the end of the year multi-storey accommodation for about 50,000 people was under construc-

tion.

The blocks in the multi-storey estates vary in size and are in the shape of the letter H, the cross-bar of which accommodates lavatories, washing spaces and bathing cubicles, while the two wings each contain anything from 56 to 128 rooms on each floor, each room measuring 12 ft. 6 ins. by 9 ft. 6 ins. The total number of rooms in an average block is between 500 and 600. The rent per room was provisionally fixed at $10 in 1954, pending an examina-