ENG-1966 — Page 184

LAND AND HOUSING

137

also compensated when they are cleared, and such people were paid $3,250 during the year.

New squatting is restricted as far as possible and periodic surveys are made to determine the number of squatters living in the urban areas and Tsuen Wan. A survey carried out in 1964 showed an estimated 488,984 squatters in the areas surveyed, including 65,317 on rooftops. All structures included in the survey will be tolerated until their clearance is required for development; any subsequently erected are demolished as soon as they are discovered. During the year, there were 14,292 demolitions of illegal untolerated structures or illegal extensions to tolerated ones. A total of 27,391 people were allocated sites in designated resite areas on which to build temporary huts pending resettlement into estates. Of these, 485 were rooftop squatters from tenements demolished for redevelopment and 5,793 were tenants from dangerous buildings. At the same time, 35,370 inhabitants of these resite areas were resettled into estates.

The increasing number of tenants evicted from dangerous pre-war buildings was one of the factors taken into account in a re-examina- tion of resettlement policy which took place in 1964. While the law already provided for compensation to be paid by landlords, tenants were not eligible for resettlement. The 'Review of Policies for Squatter Control, Resettlement and Low-Cost Housing' which was published as a white paper in 1964 and later adopted by the Legislative Council as a guide to future policy, put the former tenants of dangerous pre-war buildings at the head of a priority list for resettlement. To avail themselves of this priority they pay a lump sum as an advance on their resettlement rent. This rent advance is returned to them in the form of a reduced rent over the first 125 months of their tenancy. In all, 14,972 people were resettled under this scheme during 1966, including 8,487 former tenants of demolished buildings already living in resite areas before the scheme came into effect.

The revised resettlement policy also gives priority for accom- modation to compassionate cases and certain victims of natural disasters, to squatters living in areas needed for redevelopment, to tenants of overcrowded rooms in existing resettlement estates and to pavement dwellers. Associated with these changes are the new