ENG-1968 — Page 205

LAND AND HOUSING

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through which they receive loans from the Government to buy land and build flats; 220 societies with 4,563 members have received loans, and of these 206 societies with 4,065 members have com- pleted their buildings. A new scheme has been introduced by which the development of sites and the construction of multi-storey blocks of flats is being carried out by the Government itself. Two sites are at present under-development. Ten per cent of the funds for the revised scheme will be reserved for building co-operatives organized on existing lines by groups of senior officers. The Govern- ment also provides accommodation for its overseas staff and for many of its local staff, including police and fire service officers, nurses and resident staff on government installations.

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The Housing Board is an advisory body first appointed in 1965 for a three-year term. In October 1968 the board was reconstituted for its second term. Under the chairmanship of an unofficial member of the Legislative Council, it has five other unofficial members with housing or sociological experience and eight official members concerned with housing matters. The board is required to keep under review, and to report annually, progress in all types of housing construction; to assess present and future housing needs, not excluding ancillary social and employment facilities and the balance between types of housing; and to advise on co-ordination in executing housing policies.

RENT CONTROL

Rent control, instituted by proclamation immediately after the war, was embodied in the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance of 1947, which restricted rent by reference to pre-war levels, while exempting new and substantially reconstructed buildings from control. By 1954 permitted increases in standard rents reached 55 per cent for domestic premises and 150 per cent for business premises; there have been no further increases.

Redevelopment of controlled premises is covered by a provision in the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance by which premises may be excluded from the provisions of the ordinance by order of the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of a tenancy tribunal. Tribunals recommend awards of compensation to tenants on the basis of the hardship which dispossession will cause them, and