ENG-1972 — Page 142

LAND AND HOUSING

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This target provides for a self-contained, permanent home for every family in Hong Kong, and allows, among other things, for the clearance of all squatter huts with the occupants being given public housing. At current prices, the cost of this programme will exceed an estimated $3,000 million for the public housing estates alone, with very heavy additional expenditure for all the facilities necessary to ensure a pleasant and healthy environment for the residents of these new towns. With the bulk of this new housing situated in the New Territories, there will be a corresponding programme to greatly improve transport facilities and roads.

In conjunction with the new Housing Department, the Governor also announced the creation of a single, new Housing Authority to oversee the planning, design, construction and management of all public housing estates throughout Hong Kong. This authority will take over various functions now divided between the Housing Board, the Housing Authority, the Urban Council, the Commissioner for Resettle- ment and the Director of Public Works. It is planned that all the new arrangements will come into effect on April 1, 1973.

Government Housing

Hong Kong's resettlement estates have attracted worldwide attention and have become one of the focal points for visitors from overseas. Hundreds of thousands of people are being provided with homes by a building programme which, for speed and size, has few, if any, parallels. By the end of 1972 the Hong Kong Government had become, through this programme, the landlord of about 1.22 million people, or 30 per cent of the population.

The categories of persons eligible for resettlement were laid down in order of priority in the 1964 White Paper 'Review of Policies for Squatter Control, Resettle- ment and Government Low-Cost Housing' and subsequently revised on several occasions on the recommendation of the Housing Board. The present categories and the number of people rehoused during the year are:

Category 1:

(a) Victims of fires and natural disasters 5,092

(b) All other cases recommended for compassionate resettlement by

the Director of Social Welfare 3,399

Category 2: Occupants of squatter huts declared to be dangerous 10,924 Category 3: Former domestic tenants of buildings demolished as dangerous and occupants of surveyed structures on the roofs of such buildings and in the side and rear cases 5,432

Category 4: Present occupants of cottage, licensed or resite areas or occupants of tolerated structures on Crown land required for development 14,473 Category 5: Occupants of certain selected squatter areas nil

Category 6: Re-use of licensed areas 10

Category 7: Tenants of overcrowded resettlement rooms 9,064 Category 8: Pavement dwellers occupying tolerated structures nil