ENG-1970 — Page 170

LAND AND HOUSING

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purposes. The agency also considers loan applications on flats in new buildings as well as secondhand flats of reasonable standards. During the year 1,651 loan applications amounting to $51.2 million were approved, compared with $33.1 million for the previous year.

Squatters

All squatting on Crown land is by definition unlawful, but illegal structures are 'tolerated' if they were included in the 1964 squatter survey. When the land on which they stand is needed for development they are then cleared and their occupants resettled. 'Untolerated' structures are demolished, as are extensions to tol- erated huts. People who are genuinely homeless may apply for a site in one of the Resettlement Department's licensed areas, on which they can build a hut on payment of a small licence fee.

The squatter population continues to decrease gradually_and at the end of 1970 was estimated to be about 358,254 as compared with 463,000 in April 1965. Some 2,066 people were admitted to licensed areas during the year, and at the end of December the population of these areas stood at 34,711.

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Liaison Officers of the Resettlement Department maintain close contact with squatters and, where necessary, arrange for minor public works.

The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettlement Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into prohibited and non- prohibited areas. In prohibited areas, such as the margins of roads, development areas, and land exposed to flooding, no new domestic huts are allowed. In non-prohibited areas temporary structures may be built with permission from the District Office.