ENG-1963 — Page 244

LAND AND HOUSING

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squatters were resited when tenements on or by which they were located were demolished for redevelopment during 1963.

In June Government announced the establishment of a working party to advise whether there should be any changes in the policies and programmes for squatter clearance and resettlement, and low- cost housing. The task of the working party is to review such factors as the pressure of population on domestic accommodation now available and the building sites and finances available for fresh construction. It was also asked to study the provision of resettlement or low-cost housing, the eligibility for these privileges and to advise on the provision of temporary resites for squatting. The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of the Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettlement Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into pro- hibited and non-prohibited areas. In the former, such as the margins of roads, layout and development areas, and land exposed to flooding, it is necessary to prevent more squatters from building huts. In the latter, temporary structures may be built with a permit from the District Officer. When existing structures in the New Territories have to be cleared from areas required for develop- ment, the occupants are normally given assistance to rebuild their huts on tolerated sites elsewhere. An exception is Tsuen Wan, where 5,453 persons who had to be cleared during 1963 from areas required for development were resettled direct into standard resettlement blocks in the new /Tai Wo Hau estate.

RENT CONTROLS

The control of rent instituted by the Landlord and Tenant Proclamation of the British Military Administration in 1945, shortly after the end of the Pacific War, was designed to meet the acute shortage of accommodation brought about by extensive war damage to property and by the return in large numbers of former residents. Rent was restricted by reference to the rent pay- able before the war. In 1947 the Proclamation was embodied in the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance which also freed newly con- structed and substantially reinstated buildings from control. Thus, the broad popular distinction between controlled and uncontrolled