ENG-1970 — Page 165

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LAND AND HOUSING

consequently some factories can be resettled only if the owners are willing to change their trades.

The latest factory blocks are seven storeys high and have units of 256 square feet. At the end of the year there were 22 resettlement flatted factory blocks, containing a total of 1,860,000 square feet of net working space, mostly situated in or near existing resettlement estates. Rents are calculated to cover administration costs and a return on capital within 21 years at five per cent interest. In the latest factories these rents vary from 55 cents a square foot a month for a ground floor unit to 25 cents for one on the top floor, all rents being inclusive of rates.

Resettlement housing estates are built by the Public Works Department. The resettlement building programme is reviewed annually by the Housing Board to ensure that the needs of resettle- ment are balanced with those of other types of housing. The Government has accepted as a working basis the board's recom- mendations in its report for 1969. These include a recommendation that new building programmes for the six-year period 1969-75 of 300,000 individual units of resettlement accommodation, and 290,000 units of government low-cost housing be adopted, pending any further recommendation of the board.

From the initiation of the programme in 1954 until 1964 very basic seven-storey resettlement blocks with communal washing and sanitary facilities were built. There are now some 240 of these blocks housing approximately 500,000 people. Over the years these early blocks have become extremely overcrowded, and the facilities are inadequate for modern requirements. During the year a pilot scheme was completed for converting one of these blocks in an old estate into self-contained flats, each with its own lavatory and water supply and most with private balconies. The response to this im- proved accommodation was very favourable, and the Housing Board, with the unqualified support of the Urban Council, have recommended that the experiment be extended.

The new 16-storey blocks built since 1964 are provided with lifts and refuse chutes and the rooms are self-contained with balconies, private lavatories and water taps in place of the former communal facilities. The 500th block-the first to be allocated at 35 square

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