ENG-1967 — Page 170

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LAND AND HOUSING

plans for the improvement of the older congested areas of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon and Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island.

Work is now well advanced on the preparation of the Colony Outline Plan. When complete it will provide a basis for land development programmes and a more balanced approach to the preparation and review of statutory, outline development and detailed layout plans.

PRIVATE BUILDING

The value of buildings completed this year was $576,700,000 which, when compared with the all-time-high figure for 1966 of $1,058 million, shows a considerable drop. Nevertheless, the sum represents an investment of considerable significance and is about three times the amount spent by the government on buildings of all types. Judging by the number of new building projects which have been started in the last 12 months, it seems inevitable that next year's figure will be much lower, and that it is likely to remain at this lower figure for two or three years. This opinion is supported by the significant drop in the number of new building schemes submitted for approval in the year under review: There were only 213. This drop remains significant, although the number of plans approved in previous years may have been inflated due to a number of special circumstances. For example, in 1962 and 63, the period before the 1962 Building (Planning) Regulations became fully effective, 2,147 and 1,983 plans were approved respectively. In 1964 the total dropped to 890; in 1965 (the period of the bank crisis) to 750; and then in 1966 to 338.

The revised edition of the Laws of Hong Kong became effective on February 1, 1967, and led to the later reprint of a completely up-to-date Buildings Ordinance.

The new control and enforcement section of the Buildings Ordinance Office had a busy year. The section was set up in 1966 to investigate the extent of illegal alterations which might endanger the life or health of occupants of buildings. During 1967 the section investigated a total of 1,159 reports of illegal works from public and private sources. It served 1,036 statutory notices, requiring remedial works, and achieved compliance in 471 instances.