ENG-1964 — Page 149

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LAND AND HOUSING

number of blocks at a monthly rental of $45 a month for a flat of 240 square feet and $65 a month for one of 360 square feet. More recently, the new H-blocks have been modified to provide larger rooms on the ends of each floor with private balconies and their own water supply. These rooms are let at a rent of $45 a month to families cleared from better than average structures.

The original H-block has now been abandoned in favour of a new design of resettlement building. The new blocks, of either eight or 16 storeys in height, differ fundamentally in that access to domestic rooms lies from a central corridor on each floor instead of from external common balconies running along each side of the building. This new design also makes it possible to provide each room in a block with a private balcony. Other important advances in living standards in these blocks include refuse chutes, the installation of electrical power and light points in domestic rooms and the alloca- tion of private lavatories in place of the former communal latrines and wash-houses. The new blocks will cost more but they are an advance upon providing only basic requirements. More intensive land use and the adaptability of the new design to irregularly shaped sites will greatly assist in speeding up the rate of resettlement.

The monthly rent for a standard domestic room of 129 square feet in the new Mark III type of block is $30, composed of $23 basic rent, with elements for rating and water charges. Despite the slightly higher rents for this better accommodation the number of tenants failing to pay their rent is still extremely small. Out of a total of $28,900,000 due in rents for the year, only about 0.002 per cent had to be written off as irrecoverable arrears.

The resettlement estates are virtually townships (the population of Wong Tai Sin Estate, for instance, is now 81,000 persons) and other community needs must be provided for. Ground floor rooms are set aside to be let as shops or workshops generally to settlers who operated similar businesses in the clearance area. Shops of 240 square feet are divided into four grades and pay $200, $150, $115 or $80 a month rent according to locality. The rents include rates and are subject to annual review. Some shop spaces are used by government departments and private welfare organizations as schools, clinics or nurseries. Even rooftops are put to use and in the estates so far constructed most of them have been allocated to established voluntary agencies who operate schools or children's