ENG-1963 — Page 240

LAND AND HOUSING

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domestic rooms is given from a central corridor on each floor, and not by external balconies from the sides of the building, as hitherto. The new design, for the first time, provides each room in a block with a private balcony. Other advances in living standards which are being incorporated in these blocks include the installation of power and light points in domestic rooms and ground floor shops, and the allocation of private lavatories, one between two rooms, in place of the previous communal latrines and bath-rooms. Although the cost of this accommodation will be greater than that of the earlier design, the new type represents a great advance and will assist in accelerating the rate of resettle- ment. It will also resolve, in part, the difficulties in finding suitable sites in the closely developed urban areas. At the end of the year the rents payable for the domestic accommodation in newly designed eight or 16 storey blocks were under consideration.

Soon after the resettlement programme began it became neces- sary to provide for other community needs in the estates, which were virtually small townships (the population of Wong Tai Sin estate, for instance, is now 81,000 persons). The ground floor rooms of new blocks were therefore set aside for non-domestic use. Most are now let as shops or workshops to settlers who qualified for them by operating similar businesses in the clearance area. Some are set aside for use by certain Government depart- ments and private welfare organizations and are used as schools, clinics or nurseries. The rooftops of most resettlement blocks are also in active use and are allocated to established voluntary agencies who operate schools or children's clubs under the guid- ance of the Education or Social Welfare Departments. There is now a modern community centre in the Wong Tai Sin estate, which was constructed in 1960 from funds provided by the United States Government, and a new community centre was provided in 1963 by the Methodist Mission in the Chai Wan area, where there are both a cottage area and a resettlement estate.

With effect from February 1962 a new system of rents for ground floor shops was introduced which was more in keeping with the market rental valuation of the shops. Shops of 240 square feet which previously all paid a rent of $100, were divided into four grades and now pay either $200, $150, $115 or a reduced rent of $80 a month according to locality. The new rents include

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