ENG-1966 — Page 178

LAND AND HOUSING

131

rising costs in the industry. When compared with last year's figure of $979.1 million it does show, however, that financial strictures experienced in the early part of the year eased slightly to the extent that developers of buildings which were under construction during 1965 were able to complete successfully works in hand. It has been apparent, however, that the 'wait and see' attitude to new projects indicated in 1965 still applies, and the number of plans for new buildings submitted to the Building Authority for approval dropped from the 1965 figure of 859 to 338, the lowest since 1960.

However, the picture was not as black as this figure would seem to indicate. No less than 2,578 schemes were approved during 1963, almost double those of any other year, and it is only now that work is starting on many of these projects. Some of the 1963 schemes have been inhibited by those provisions of the Buildings Ordinance which give the Building Authority power to refuse consent to start work if a period of more than two years has elapsed since the date of approval of any of the prescribed plans, thus ensuring that up- to-date standards are maintained. However, in many cases devel- opers have been able to meet the two-year deadline in making application for consent to start work and in others, where the period has been exceeded but there have been extenuating circum- stances such as foundation problems or difficulties with adjoining premises, the Building Authority has exercised his discretionary powers and permitted development to go ahead. It would appear therefore, that until this large number of proposals has been absorbed it can be expected that the number of new plans submitted will continue to drop.

Despite the many new buildings erected during the past 10 years, many old buildings of load-bearing brickwall and timber floor construction remain. Because of the depredations of the years, accelerated by neglect coupled with overcrowding, subjection to typhoons and tropical rainstorms, the risk of sudden collapse of all or part of the building is ever present. Many of the older framed reinforced concrete buildings also show signs of deterioration and some of those too have become dangerous. The dangerous buildings division of the Buildings Ordinance Office carry out constant inspection of buildings which are suspect, and during 1966 obtained 380 closure orders for buildings which were either in imminent