This article was downloaded by: [Case Western Reserve University]On: 15 October 2014, At: 05:36Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of ContemporaryChinaPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjcc20

Housing Management andthe Comprehensive HousingModel in Hong Kong: A casestudy of colonial influenceChristopher John MacKayPublished online: 02 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Christopher John MacKay (2000) Housing Management and theComprehensive Housing Model in Hong Kong: A case study of colonial influence,Journal of Contemporary China, 9:25, 449-466, DOI: 10.1080/713675948

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713675948

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of allthe information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on ourplatform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views ofthe authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis.The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should beindependently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor andFrancis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings,demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, inrelation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private studypurposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any

form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of accessand use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

Journal of Contemporary China (2000), 9(25), 449–466

Housing Management and theComprehensive Housing Model inHong Kong: a case study ofcolonial in� uenceCHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY*

This article contains an examination of the way in which the largely British model ofprofessional comprehensive housing management became important in Hong Kong. Itshows how a comparatively small number of pioneers, mainly women who were followersof the principles of Octavia Hill, a philanthropic social reformer who developed her ideasin 19th century London, had a considerable in� uence in the very different environment ofHong Kong. An examination of the comparatively small amount of literature on the housingmanagement profession is followed by a detailed analysis of the way in which thehousing management profession has developed in Hong Kong. A review of the origin ofpublic housing programmes in Hong Kong highlights the in� uence which housing profes-sionals had when the housing administration was radically restructured at the time of theformation of the Hong Kong Housing Authority in the early 1970s.

Half the population of Hong Kong live in houses provided by a large singleorganisation, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA). The HKHA owns and/ormanages 900,000 properties housing over 3,000,000 people.1 The HKHA hasmaintained a building programme of at least 35,000 units per year for many years.It is the most signi� cant example of a ‘comprehensive’ housing authority, in whichthe physical/construction elements, and social, welfare and management elementsof housing provision are brought together within one organisation or department.2

It is the concept of comprehensiveness which is at the core of housing managementas a distinctive profession.

In most of the world, housing management is seen either as a largely administrat-ive function or as a sub-area of general management or surveying, rather than adistinctive professional activity (de� ned as requiring membership of a professional

* Christopher Mackay is based at Magee College, University of Ulster, Londonderry , UK. He has worked inmunicipal housing and planning departments and has undertaken research on housing administrative structures,housing education and housing policy in the UK, Hong Kong and South Africa. He has been a research fellow atthe Universities of Stellenbosch and Oxford. The research upon which this article was based was partly funded bythe British Council.

1. Detailed statistics and other information can be found in the Annual Reports produced by the Hong Kong HousingAuthority. These statistics are from the 1997/98 report.

2. For an examination of the concept of the comprehensive housing authority and its application in Hong Kong,see C. J. Mackay, ‘Large housing organisations: a comparative study of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and theNorthern Ireland Housing Executive’, Ph.D. (University of Ulster, 1997).

1067-0564 print/1469-9400 online/00/250449-18 Ó 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

body with validated educational and practice requirements).3 For example, inAmerica housing managers are seen primarily as co-ordinators of a range of skillsand technologies. ‘They are quintessentia l administrators’ rather than professionals4

many of whom do not make their careers in housing, but in Britain housingmanagement has developed as a chartered professional activity.

In 1998, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the major professional organisationfor housing management, had a total membership of 14,737, and of these 13,270were in the UK, 1331 were in Hong Kong but only 136 were in the ‘rest of theworld’.5 The Hong Kong Branch of the Chartered Institute of Housing6 hasestimated that members in the public sector were managing 864,000 � ats andnearly 3,000,000 m2 of commercial and industrial premises and that those in theprivate sector were managing nearly 500,000 � ats and 30 million m2 of commercialand industrial premises. This paper contains an examination of the reasons why theidea of housing management as a professional activity took root in Hong Kong anddeveloped to a point where it could be argued that it has had more signi� cance inthe way housing is administered than in Britain. Within the framework of imperialin� uence, a very small number of housing professionals , who were committed tothe principles of a comprehensive professional approach to housing managementdeveloped in Britain, were able to make a considerable impact as members of thepolicy community in Hong Kong.

Housing management research

Although housing management as a distinctive profession can be said to haveexisted for most of the present century, there has been very little research on, orevaluation of, the distinctive approaches to the production and management ofhousing which its practitioners have advocated. There have been a number ofuseful contributions on the development of housing management in Britain.7 Theearly history of housing professionals and in particular the in� uence of women hasbeen well treated by Marion Brion.8

With regard to housing professionals in Hong Kong there have been a few,largely descriptive articles in the professional journals and a book edited by Luke

3. D. Clapham, ‘The social construction of housing management research, Urban Studies 34, (1997), pp. 761–774.4. J. E. Gruber, Controlling Bureaucracies (Berkeley: California University Press, 1987), p. 157.5. Annual statistical analysis, 3 April 1998, Chartered Institute of Housing, Coventry.6. Hong Kong Branch, Chartered Institute of Housing (Hong Kong, 1996, Lea� et).7. See for example M. Laf� n, Professionalism and Policy: the Role of the Professions in the Central–Local

Government Relationship (Aldershot: Gower, 1986); P. Kemp and P. Williams, in S. Lowe and D. Hughes, eds, ANew Century of Social Housing (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1991); P. Gallagher, ‘The ideology of housingmanagement ’, in J. English, ed. (1982) The Future of Council Housing (London: Croom Helm); A. Power, PropertyBefore People (London: Allan and Unwin, 1987); D. Clapham and J. English, Public Housing: Current Trends andFuture Development (London: Croom Helm, 1987); I. Cole and R. Furbey, The Eclipse of Council Housing (London:Routledge, 1994).

8. M. Brion, ‘The Society of Women Housing Managers and women’s employment in housing’, D. Phil. Thesis(City University, London, 1989); M. Brion, Women in the Housing Service (London: Routledge, 1995). Brion’sinterviews with many of the pioneers of the Society of Women Housing Managers (thesis, pp. 17–24) provided a modeland stimulus for some of the research underlying this paper which included interviews and correspondenc e with thosewho had been the key decision makers in the early 1970s when the current structure of housing in Hong Kong wasestablished. Many of these were living in retirement in Britain when the research was undertaken .

450

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

Wong9 containing some useful information, but as in Britain there has beenvirtually no research on the impact of professionalism on the provision andmanagement of housing. There is very little comparative literature on styles ofhousing management or housing professionalism and their relationship to thestructure of housing organisations10 and in general professionalised housing man-agement has been outside the main stream of academic research and debate.11 Inthis study it will be shown that the crucial issue of professional in� uence in housingin Hong Kong has been totally ignored in the otherwise authoritative researches ofCastells and Kwok.12

The origins of a distinctive approach to housing management in Britain

The idea of a distinctive housing profession is derived partly from the ideas andexample of Octavia Hill. She has been considered by some to have been one of thegreat social reformers of the 19th century, whilst to others she was a marginal� gure whose importance has been overrated, largely because of the absence of anyother notable � gures in the history of housing management.13 Octavia Hill and herfollowers have frequently been criticised for their overbearing and paternalisticattitudes,14 but her strong belief in self-help and her dread of ‘indiscriminatecharity’ were characteristic of her time.15 She had a horror of large-scale estates andstate organisations and would not have dreamt that there could be any linksbetween her work and housing in Hong Kong at the end of the 20th century.However, the two elements of her underlying philosophy , that any assistance forthe poor should be given in a way which encouraged self-help and independencerather than pauperism and welfare dependency, and that the physical, social and� nancial aspects of social housing should be considered in an integrated way, havehad a continuing resonance in Hong Kong.16

A key element in the propagation of her ideas was her training scheme. This wasbasically an apprenticeship or pupilage scheme which was restricted to women.They were normally expected to have a private income in order to supportthemselves during training. This effectively con� ned recruitment to the middle

9. L. S. Wong, ed., Housing in Hong Kong a Multi-Disciplinary Study (Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books(Asia) Ltd, 1978).

10. T. Brown, ‘Housing management and social exclusion: a comparative perspective’, a paper presented at theHSA Autumn Conference, unpublished , De Montfort University, 1996.

11. D. Franklin and D. Clapham, ‘The social construction of housing management ’, Housing Studies 12(1), (1997),pp. 7–26; J. Kemeny, Housing and Social Policy (London: Routledge, 1992); A. Murie and P. Williams, ‘Directionsin UK housing research: a note for discussion’, Housing Studies Association Conference, unpublished , Reading,September 1993. This phenomenon is not uncommon in other areas of social policy, see in Research and Policy: TheUses of Qualitative Research in Social and Educational Research (London: Falmer Press), p. 141. J. Finch hasidenti� ed a gap between researchers and policy makers in a number of areas and has developed a ‘two communities’thesis which holds that policy makers and social scientists inhabit different worlds and cannot communicat e veryeasily.

12. M. Castells, L. Goh and R. Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome (London: Pion, 1990).13. G. Darley, Octavia Hill (London: Constable, 1990); P. Malpass, ‘Octavia Hill’, in P. Barker, ed., Founders

of the Welfare State (London: Heinemann, 1984).14. P. Spicker, ‘Legacy of Octavia Hill’, Housing Magazine June (Institute of Housing, 1985).15. D. Clapham, ‘A woman of her time’, in C. Grant, ed., Built to Last? (Shelter, 1992), pp. 15–25.16. R. Whelan, ed., Octavia Hill and the Social Housing Debate (London: IEA. 1998), p. 36.

451

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

classes. Ann Power has described the development of the Octavia Hill system, howshe recruited like-minded women who could act as visitors/rent collectors/managersand the enunciation of her strong belief that women, rather than men, shouldprovide the personal home-based service of housing management.17 Women hous-ing managers were preferred, because Hill considered that women were usually incontrol of family issues. Writing in 1900, Hill expressed her belief that themanagement of dwellings for the poor should follow the examples of nursing andteaching professions and use training to raise standards.18 The Octavia Hill systememphasised the social aspects of housing but also included a rigorous attitude torent collection and book-keeping. Her training programmes also included suchsubjects as building technology and sanitary engineering.

Despite her interest in training, a formal organisation was not established until4 years after her death. In 1916 a number of women who had been employed tomanage housing built for munitions workers, came together to form The Associ-ation of Women House Property Managers. This organisation, under a number ofslightly different names, was to keep the idea of professionalised housing manage-ment alive with largely female pioneers exporting it to various parts of the formerBritish Empire, particularly Hong Kong, South Africa and Singapore.

In Hong Kong the � rst housing mangers were women, but as in Britain, whenthe focus of activity moved from voluntary trusts to public authorities, the size ofthe housing organisation grew, and technical issues involved in developmentbecame more prominent, the in� uence of women tended to decline. In 1998 onlythree of 25 members of the senior management team of the HKHA were women.19

Within the Hong Kong Branch of the CIOH, 68% of members were men and 32%were women.20 Women continued to maintain their relative pre-eminence in theHong Kong Housing Society.

The housing management profession

Friedson and Larson21 have characterised the growth of professionalism in thepublic services as a process whereby each profession has attempted to in� uence theway in which policies are made by making claims to ‘exclusive cognitive andnormative competencies’. Brion has shown that the socialisation and professionalidentity of housing was quite strong in the early days of the Society of WomenHousing Managers. Such characteristics had been fostered by personalised recruit-ment and training procedures and maintained by a sense of belonging andresponsibility . But as Cole and Furbey22 have shown the housing profession’s claim

17. Power, Property Before People, p. 13.18. Brion, ‘The Society of Women Housing Managers and women’s employment in housing’, p. 45.19. In 1993 Rosanna Wong, who had a social and youth work background , succeeded the � rst ‘non of� cial’, the

very traditional colonial civil servant, David Ackers-Jones , who had beendeputy governor, as Chairman of the HKHA.HKHA, Annual Report (Hong Kong: HKHA, 1997–98), p. 127.

20. Annual Statistics, CIOH, Coventry. In the UK the proportions of male and female are almost equal.21. Cited in Laf� n, Professionalism and Policy: the Role of the Professions in the Central–Local Government

Relationship, p. 213.22. Cole and Furbey, The Eclipse of Council Housing, p. 133.

452

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

to a unique role in Britain was undermined by members of professions founded onmore specialist and established skills being reluctant to relinquish control to ausurping group of ‘generalists’. Despite the failure to obtain complete dominanceof its � eld, the Chartered Institute of Housing continues to play a signi� cant rolein setting standards in policy formulation, training and education, housing manage-ment and professional development and lobbying government and otherorganisations on housing issues. It has six main categories of membership whichcover all the main grades within housing organisations .

Hong Kong has been characterised as having a conservative , corporatist, politicaland social structure with greatly constrained limits of democratic political interven-tion.23 This meant that when housing was accepted as a relevant professionalgrouping its members were given considerable in� uence within a monopolisticprovider of social housing. As the profession grew in importance its status wasformally recognised in the structure of government as one of the elements in the‘engineering and associated professions’ functional constituency which elected arepresentative to the Legislative Council.24 A recognised professional quali� cationhas been a requirement for promotion within the Hong Kong Housing Authoritywhereas this has not been the case in many British housing organisations.

Housing management in Hong Kong

The British style of professional housing management was introduced into HongKong in 1951 when a member of the Society of Women Housing Managers fromEngland joined the Hong Kong Housing Society as Secretary/Housing manager.25

The Society had been founded in 1948 by the Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong who:

was aware of the profession of housing management in the United Kingdom throughhis work in London and Liverpool and it was he who insisted that proper managementof estates should be undertaken and that the person appointed should train localChinese personnel in the profession.26

The Hong Kong Housing Society developed a style of housing managementbased on the principles laid down by Octavia Hill which had been promulgated bythe Society of Women Housing Managers. By 1952 it had a well-managed estateof 290 houses run by Chinese staff who had been trained by the ex-patriate housingmanager. The Hong Kong Housing Society continued to recruit and train largelywomen staff. In 199727 the vast majority of the 50 professionally quali� ed staffwere still women.

The in� uence of the Society of Women Housing Managers was also strong in theHong Kong Housing Authority. As soon as the estates started to be developed it

23. P. Harris, Hong Kong A Study in Bureaucratic Politics (Hong Kong: Heinemann (Asia), 1978); A. R. Cuthbert,‘For a few dollars more: urban planning and the legitimation process in Hong Kong’, International Journal of Urbanand Regional Research 16(1), (1992), pp. 573–593.

24. N. Miners, The Government and Politics of Hong Kong 4th edition (Hong Kong: OUP, 1986), p. 120.25. Wong, ed., Housing in Hong Kong a Multi-Disciplinary Study, p. 184.26. Institute of Housing, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Branch: Institute of

Housing, 1980), p. 1.27. Chartered Institute of Housing, Yearbook and Membership Directory (Coventry: CIOH, 1998).

453

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

was decided that professional management was needed. Miss Bedwell, a highlyregarded fellow of the Society of Housing Managers with local governmentexperience in England, became chief housing manager in 1956.28 She recruited anumber of other quali� ed staff from the UK and Singapore to form the core of thehousing management team.

In a paper to the Royal Society of Arts in 1965, J. R. Firth,29 the Chief Architectof the Hong Kong Housing Authority, put forward his view on housingmanagement:

The essence of housing management is a good relationship between landlord andtenant … housing assistants make regular visits to collect the rent and any irregulari-ties in tenancy are quickly discovered and dealt with … staff are carefully selectedfrom candidates who have a good education and are considered temperamentallysuited to these tasks.

Staff were encouraged to train and obtain quali� cations and Firth30 made theperceptive comment that:

It takes only a few years to design and build a housing estate, but the schemes whichare thus constructed will require to be managed for the full extent of their life whichmay be up to 100 years. This is the real secret of success in public housing … the mainreason for our success in rent collection is that tenants have been properly se-lected. … A lot is also due to the housing assistants being in some measure socialworkers as well. They get to know the tenants and can anticipate their problems.

These comments summarise some of the main characteristics of the style ofhousing management which had been derived from the ideas of Octavia Hill. Theyalso illustrate the effectiveness of the somewhat paternalistic and autocraticattitudes, which were characteristic of the approach to housing management bymembers of the Society of Women Housing Managers in Hong Kong.

English housing managers were recruited to the Housing Authority on a regularbasis until 1964/65. A number came from Singapore when that territory gainedindependence in 1965. A small number of quali� ed housing managers wereresponsible for a very large number of properties. This scale of the responsibilit ywas presumably only possible because of careful tenant selection and the very highdegree of self-discipline which was to be found.

As the Authority and Society expanded, housing management posts were usually� lled locally.31 Whilst ex-patriates continued to be employed in senior and technicalpositions , in housing management there were considerable advantages in employinglocal people because they were able to communicate directly with the tenants in

28. Institute of Housing, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong, p. 5.29. J. Firth, ‘The work of the Hong Kong Housing Authority’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (1965), p. 187.30. Ibid., p. 193.31. The Director of the HKHA from 1990 to 1996, Fung Tung, was one of the � rst Chinese trainees appointed

to the Housing Authority. He was elected to corporate membership of the Society of Housing Managers in 1963 andbecame honorary secretary of the HK Branch of the Institute of Housing in 1968. He spent some time as a housingmanagement trainee in the City of Westminster, where Miss Christie and Miss Basket (see Brion, ‘The Society ofWomen Housing Managers and women’s employment in housing’) had been amongst the most distinguished membersof the Society of Women Housing Managers. Fung Tung was the President of the Chartered Institute of Housing in1996–1997, the � rst president from the Hong Kong Branch.

454

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

their own language. It soon became obvious that if local staff were eventually totake over the senior management positions then training would be required. In theearly days most of the locally recruited staff for the Society and the Authority hadoriginally been trained in social work; in fact the Hong Kong Housing Societyhad originally been a branch of the Council for Social Services.32 This was verymuch in the Octavia Hill tradition.33

The trainees undertook courses in Building Construction and Sanitation at theHong Kong technical college.34 Some continued their training to full professionallevel by correspondence courses and obtained British quali� cations.35 Anotherimportant point was that harmonious and co-operative relationships between of� cesand tenants were developed and many estate improvements were made with thehelp of mutual aid committees. At the same time, � nancial management wasconsidered important and arrears of rent were much less than those on theresettlement estates.36 The Housing Authority appointed a full time training of� cerin 1963 and students were prepared for examinations administered by the HongKong Government Examination Board.

Following negotiations between the Hong Kong University and the Government,it was agreed that the Certi� cate in Housing Management of the Extra MuralDepartment of the University of Hong Kong, which had been running since theearly 1960s, would be recognised by the Government and that recognition bythe Institute of Housing in the UK would be applied for. This replaced thecorrespondence course. The British Institute continues to remain responsible forthe validation and re-validation of housing management courses in Hong KongUniversities and was in the process of negotiating to continue this role in the restof China at the time of writing.

The Hong Kong Branch of the Institute of Housing was � rst given fullprofessional recognition in 1966 and the number of members has grown steadily.

Housing provision in Hong Kong

The origins of large scale government intervention in the provision of housing inHong Kong is usually traced back to a � re on Christmas Eve 1953 which destroyedmuch of the Shek Kip Mei squatter settlement, one of the many shanty towns thathoused recent immigrants to Hong Kong in the 1950s. In the � re, 53,000 peoplelost their makeshift homes overnight.37 There was strong reaction in Hong Kongand in Britain and the Government moved to re-house the displaced people asquickly as possible.

32. Institute of Housing, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong, p. 1.33. Malpass, ‘Octavia Hill’, p. 34.34. Institute of Housing, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong, p. 5.35. Mr Lim Yew-guan, who became Deputy Director of Housing before his retirement, was one of the � rst

graduates to be recruited to the Housing Authority in 1960. He undertook a correspondence course linked to practiceat work. He considered that: ‘Housing management is not the same as property management . We emphasised contactand understanding with residents. Therefore our work had a very strong social component ’. HKHA, From Shelterto Home (Hong Kong: HKHA, 1999), p. 117.

36. Ibid., p. 120.37. HKHA, Rising in Harmony. 1953–93. A Story Worth Telling (Hong Kong: HKHA, 1993), p. 6.

455

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

This was not the � rst intervention in housing. There had been a series of publichealth ordinances since the 19th century. In 1949 the Model Housing Society, andthe Hong Kong Housing Society were established to provide � ats for middleincome families.38 These organisations developed pilot housing schemes, includingfour storey tenements, with the help of loans and cheap land from the Govern-ment.39 More signi� cantly, in 1954, the Government set up the Housing Authorityas a semi-autonomous statutory body to provide housing for low and mediumincome people who occupied overcrowded accommodation.

After the Shek Kip Mei � re in 1954, the Government decided that rather thanexpand the Housing Authority or the role of the Urban Council it would set up aseparate Resettlement Department under its direct control. From the start, the‘resettlement programme’ was seen as a separate ‘residual’40 housing programme,one in which basic provision was made for those with no other options, keptseparate from any tentative moves towards the provision of a general programmeof social housing provision which would appeal to a broader range of society. Theresults of this division, particularly the absence of professional housing mangers inthe Resettlement Department, was to have fundamental implications for housingmanagement and led to the need for major changes in the early 1970s.

The establishment of the Resettlement Department to provide rehousing forsquatters owed little to philanthropy .41 The primary rationale for the persistentpolicy of squatter clearance and resettlement was to meet the demand for scarceurban land for development. In addition, squatters were perceived as a threat tohealth, public order and a � re risk.42 Squatter clearance was only incidentally awelfare operation.

Because land in Hong Kong has all been owned by the Government its disposalby lease for private development has been an important source of governmentrevenue. The acute shortage of urban land suitable for commercial developmentand the proximity of some of the squatter sites to the centre of the city meant thatthe squatters had to be cleared for economic reasons and to remove eyesores. TheHong Kong Government retained the power to evict ‘tolerated squatters’ withoutany compensation, they were only re-housed at the Government’s pleasure and notas a right. This discretion could be employed to ensure that clearance programmeswent as scheduled. The top priority of housing policy in the � rst two decades ofgovernment intervention—massive squatter clearance and resettlement—was todeal with the symptoms of the housing problem rather than its cause,43 and about

38. E. G. Pryor, Housing in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 24.39. R. Bristow, Hong Kong’s New Towns. A Selective Review (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989),

pp. 47–48.40. M. Harloe, The People’s Home? (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995), p. 72. Harloe has distinguished between what he

calls ‘mass’ housing programmes developed by state organisations in response to wars or other civic tension whichare designed to provide accommodation for a wide cross-section of the community and ‘residual’ programmes whichare provided as a last resort for those with no other options.

41. D. Drakakis-Smith, High Society: Housing Provision in Hong Kong, 1954 to 1979. A Jubilee Critique (HongKong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1979), p. 69; P. K. Fong and A. G. O. Yeh, ‘Hong Kong’,in Seong Kyu Ha, ed., Housing in Asia (Andover: Croom Helm, 1987), p. 21; J. K. Keung, ‘Government interventionand housing policy in Hong Kong’, Third World Review 7(1), (1985), pp. 23–44.

42. K. Hopkins, ed., Hong Kong the Industrial Colony (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 291.43. Fong and Yeh, ‘Hong Kong’, p. 21.

456

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

half of the total squatter areas, mainly those of little developable value, were leftuntouched for many years. Issues of quality and standards of management wereconsistently ignored.

The Resettlement Department developed in a very different way from theHousing Authority.44 It was run on military lines and many of the resettlementof� cers, all men, were ex-soldiers rather than followers of Octavia Hill. Unlike theHousing Authority which, as we have seen, took considerable care over allocations,the department had no control over whom it housed because it had a statutory dutyto re-house all squatters in areas designated for clearance.

In some resettlement estates, effective control was in the hands of triads andother undesirable groups who organised illegal immigration, controlled commercialactivities and bribed and intimidated the resettlement of� cers (and the police).Housing management was limited to the employment of ‘tidiness teams’ armedwith iron bars who patrolled the estates to remove the worst of the illegal structuresand try to maintain some form of order.45 According to Stewart, people in theresettlement estates were treated as ‘enemies’ and estate staff would not go intothe estates unless backed up by police in riot gear.46 Families re-housed by theResettlement Department were not given a choice of estate and this madethe development of viable communities more dif� cult.47 Part of the problem withthe Resettlement Department was that it was run by civil service ‘generalistadministrators’ rather than housing professionals. There were no guidelines formanagement and policies towards tenants were based largely on the whims of theof� cers, the only contacts which tenants had with management was if the managercame to impose a penalty for some breach of regulations.48

In some cases, the buildings and estate layout on the estates managed by theAuthority and the Society and those administered by the Resettlement Departmentwere identical, having been designed and built by the public works department. Theimpact of the difference in management standards between the two types of estatewas plain to see.49

44. Wong, ed., Housing in Hong Kong a Multi-Disciplinary Study, p. 199.45. Interview with Bernard Williams E.D, J.P, M.I.H, who was Commissioner for Resettlement in the late 1960s.

Although an administrative grade of� cer with a background in the Hong Kong Regiment rather than housingmanagement he was convinced of the need to bring professional housing standards to the resettlement authority andpersonally trained as a housing manager. After a spell in the statistics department during which he organised a housingsurvey he returned to the new Housing Department as Deputy Director/Operations in 1974. He was Director from1980 to 1983 and then taught housing management in China under the auspices of the World Bank until his retirementto England. This material is based on an interview with Bernard Williams in England in 1994.

46. Ellen Stewart was brought up in Letchworth where her father was a friend of Ebenezer Howard. She has beena member of the Society of Housing Managers since 1949 and spoke in favour of allowing men to join the Societyin the 1950s. She worked in a number of local authorities and new towns in England as well as in Cape Town. Shespent 11 years in Hong Kong as a management of� cer and training of� cer for the ‘old’ authority. She retired in 1971.She was interviewed in England in 1994.

47. Wong, ed., Housing in Hong Kong a Multi-Disciplinary Study, p. 200.48. HKHA, From Shelter to Home, pp. 106–107.49. Institute of Housing, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong, p. 4; F. J. Carroll, ‘Housing in Hong

Kong’, The Of� cial Journal of the Institute of Housing Managers (March 1968), pp. 13–17. Carroll originally trainedas a housing manager in the Borough of Kensington under one of the most distinguished women housing managersMiss Alford. He worked in Singapore before moving to Hong Kong. He was the � rst vice-chairman of the Hong KongBranch of the Institute of Housing. He was assistant commissioner in the old Authority and became � rst DeputyDirector Housing Management in the new Authority. He returned to the UK in 1976. He was interviewed in 1994.

457

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

Table 1. Distribution of permanent domestic dwelling units by main source of supply in the Hong KongMetropolitan Area, December 1970

Tenure Total Percentage

Private 286,000 (this � gure includes 47.928,400 pre-war properties)

HK Housing Authority 33,100 5.6HK Housing Society 18,800 3.1Government low cost housing 33,600 5.6Resettlement housing 214,700 36.0Government quarters 11,000 1.8Sub-total public 311,200 52.1

Total 597,200 100

Adapted from Pryor (1983, p. 38). Source: Commissioner of Rating and Valuation, Property Review,1971.

Whatever reservations there are about the quality of housing produced by theResettlement Authority between 1955 and 1972, there is no disputing the quantityof its output.50 As Table 1 shows, by 1972 the Authority and the Society hadtogether only produced a quarter of the number provided by the ResettlementDepartment.

As prosperity increased throughout the 1960s the need for action to improve theresettlement estates became apparent to some of those in government. As part ofhis strategy to improve the management of his estates, the Commissioner forResettlement requested that the Housing Authority should second a quali� edhousing manager to his department.

Ellen Stewart was selected for this secondment. She has recalled how Williamshad asked ‘how do you keep your estates in such good order whilst the resettlementones are in such a mess?’ She had replied that it was because the Authority hadproper housing management, didn’t employ amateurs or people who don’t knowwhat they are doing and trained them properly. When he had asked how he couldget housing managers for all these estates she had replied that she thought it wasimpossible.

However she was persuaded to become a housing management adviser to theResettlement Department. One of the � rst things she did was to introduce homevisits for those who were in the resettlement programme, so that an explanation ofwhy the land was wanted and some kind of choice in resettlement could be offered.She also offered advice on more mundane management techniques such as theintroduction of large tubs of � owers, which not only improved the environment butalso helped to prevent illegal parking.51

The Department also began to send resettlement of� cers on the university

50. Drakakis-Smith, High Society: Housing Provision in Hong Kong, 1954 to 1979. A Jubilee Critique, p. 69; andFong and Yeh, ‘Hong Kong’, p. 21, have written critically about the standards of housing produced by the ResettlementDepartment . They considered it unacceptable that about a million people were re-housed at the inadequate standardof 2.2 m2 per adult in a cubicle of 11 m2 without tap water, bath or toilet facilities in the Mark 1 and 11 programmes.

51. Interview with E. Stewart, 1994.

458

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

Table 2. Institute of Housing membership in Hong Kong

Year Member Student Total

1972HKHA 15 16 31HK Housing Society 4 3 9Resettlement department 5 5HK land 3 3Total 22 24 48

Year Member fellow Student & Associate Total

1997HKHA 650 122 772HK Housing Society 40 28 68Commercial 250 101 351

Total 940 251 1191

Source: Institute of Housing, Year Books 1972 (1998).

course52 and as part of this course they were given professional placements bybeing attached to Housing Authority Of� cers. It was hoped that in this wayresettlement staff would observe better practice and would wish to becomeprofessionally quali� ed. However, these initiatives were palliatives and theiroverall impact was inevitably limited. It was soon realised that more fundamentalreform was called for.

In 1966 a series of riots, sparked off by an increase in public transport fares, tookplace in Kowloon. A commission of enquiry followed. This concluded (inter alia)that housing conditions were a major problem and recommended the ‘developmentof new communities, designed to reduce population stress in the central areas ofHong Kong and Kowloon’.53

Before there was any chance of implementing these proposals a second series ofdisturbances broke out. These posed a more fundamental challenge to the continu-ation of colonial rule in Hong Kong54 and led the Labour Government to choosea new governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, who was not a China specialist or colonialgovernor but had � rm commitment to social reform.

Despite the immense progress which had been made, an apparently insatiabledemand for housing still remained. It was realised that bold targets and initiatives

52. In 1968 there was only one IOH trainee in the Resettlement Department . He was MrYiu-Kwong (Robert) MOKwho, before he retired and joined the private sector in 1993, had become Assistant Director Regional Managementin the HKHA. By 1972 there were � ve IOH trainees in the Department. Interview, 1991.

53. According to Donald Liao, who was the Director of Housing from 1973 to 1980 and the Chairman of theAuthority from 1980 to 1985, the governor Sir David Trench was concerned about the state of the resettlement estatesand began to shift the emphasis to the more professionalised Housing Authority. HKHA, From Shelter to Home, p. 143.Bernard Williams has stated that Trench had considered amalgamating the organisations before MacLehose wasappointed.

54. E. McLaughlin, ‘Hong Kong’, in A. Cochrane and J. Clark, ed., Comparing Welfare States (London: Sage,1993), p. 116.

459

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

were required to improve the amount and quality of housing, and he saw structuralreform as a key to this provision Table 2).

The structure of the Hong Kong Housing Authority

In a speech to the Hong Kong Legislative Council on the 18 October 1972,55 theGovernor stated that the inadequacy of housing was a major source of frictionbetween the Government and the population and that it was proposed to ‘vest in asingle body the powers and functions that are at present fragmented’. In a furtherspeech introducing the Housing Bill on the 28 February 1973, he provided somemore details of the way in which housing was to be organised .56 All housingresponsibilities , in particular those of the Resettlement Department, were to begiven to a new authority which would be headed by the government’s Secretary forHousing and ruled by a board of 17 members. Eleven were non-governmental ,including eight Urban Council nominees, and six were ‘of� cial’, i.e. civil servantsrepresenting the Government. All were appointed by the Governor.

Ian Lightbody was Commissioner for Resettlement when he became Commis-sioner for Housing and � rst Chairman of the Housing Authority. He had littleprevious knowledge of housing matters. However, he was soon convinced by thearguments of the housing of� cials of the need for improved management, that itwas clear from evidence on the ground that the large Resettlement Departmentestates were in a mess, were uncontrollable and that everyone should be pointed inthe direction of the small Housing Authority which had professionally quali� edstaff.57

In effect the Resettlement Department, which by that time had over 200,000properties, was to be taken over by the Housing Authority which was about a sixthof the size, but had clearly demonstrated on the ground the value of housingmanagement, to form a new more powerful Housing Authority and HousingDepartment. It was hoped that an additional bene� t to be gained by the impositionof professional housing management on the resettlement estates would be areduction in corruption. Many of the women trainees appointed by the HousingSociety had a social work background , were married to comparatively wealthyhusbands or had private incomes. They saw the job as a vocation, an opportunityfor service, rather than as a source of bribes. The largely middle class ladies fromBritain, who organised housing training and supervised the staff, maintained a highreputation for integrity. Although scandals concerning bribery have emerged fromtime to time, considering the size of the organisations and the enormous number of� nancial transactions which it undertakes, these have not been signi� cant and the

55. Hong Kong Hansard (Government of Hong Kong, 1972/73), p. 119.56. Ibid., p. 508.57. Ian Lightbody, KMP, served in the Indian Army and joined the military government in Hong Kong in 1945/46.

He became a Cadet in the Colonial Service in Hong Kong. In 1972 he was appointed Commissioner for Resettlementand was responsible for planning the new housing authority. He was Secretary for Housing and Chairman of theAuthority from 1972/73 until 1977. This material is based on correspondence in 1991 and an interview in Englandin 1994.

460

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

professionalised approach which stresses integrity has surely contributed to thissituation.

From this it is very clear that the housing professionals had managed to convincegovernment of� cials of the value of their methods. When the idea of a large-scaleorganisation set up to improve housing standards had been mooted in the past therehad been strong objections from some parts of the Government establishment ,particularly the Department of Finance. MacLehose’s social reforms met initialresistance from the civil service and local elites, but within the general climate ofreform after the Kowloon riots, in the authoritarian structure of Hong Kong, acombination of a forceful Governor in alliance with the more progressive elementsof the administrative class was able to prevail.58

The housing professionals had been able to use the evidence of their achieve-ments on the ground to provide a blueprint for the bene� ts of more intensivehousing management.

Integration of the various parts of the new organisation was dif� cult at � rst,partly because the Resettlement Department had a much lower staff to propertyratio than the old Authority and its staff had lower levels of education and training.There was also mutual suspicion. The staff of the Department thought that theywould be displaced by the more highly quali� ed ones from the Authority, whilstthe staff of the Authority were reluctant to take on the resettlement estates fearingthat their higher standards and professionalism would be swamped. Initially therewas a concentration of effort on a few ‘model’ estates to show other of� cers whatcould be achieved.

There was strong personal commitment from the Governor and the higherex-patriate administrative of� cers, who attempted to see that the best and mostambitious of� cers from the ‘old’ Authority were transferred to the most dif� cultex-resettlement estates and good housing management practice was graduallyimposed.59

Housing and resettlement grades were amalgamated into one professional hous-ing grade, creating a uni� ed profession in the colony. This led to an increaseddemand for quali� cations and the number of staff being trained was increasedrapidly. In 1974–75 over 300 housing assistants were studying for the University’sCerti� cate in Housing Management. By 1977–78, 482 of� cers were taking thecourse, with a further 22 taking overseas courses by correspondence.60

Since this key period in the early 1970s the housing profession has continued togrow in size and importance. A professionally recognised undergraduate course andpostgraduate diploma at the Hong Kong City University have been added to theUniversity of Hong Kong’s certi� cate and diploma. The housing profession alsohas a high pro� le in the management of both owner occupied and privately rentedproperty. Members of the Institute of Housing are to be found in over 170organisations in addition to the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong KongHousing Society;61 a number of these are substantia l private management compa-

58. Castells et al., The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome, p. 137.59. Interviews with Williams and Stewart, 1994.60. IOH, Professional Housing Management in Hong Kong.61. Chartered Institute of Housing, Yearbook and Membership Directory, pp. 152–162.

461

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

nies which have no equivalent in the UK. There has also been a growing diasporaof housing managers from Hong Kong settling elsewhere, particularly in Canada.

Housing management and policy research

The highly signi� cant in� uence of the housing management profession in the wayin which housing in Hong Kong has developed has been largely ignored in theexisting academic literature. An otherwise authoritative publication on housing inHong Kong, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome, by M. Castells, Professor of Planning atBerkeley and Professor R. Yin-Wang Kwok, Director of the Centre of UrbanStudies and Planning at the University of Hong Kong, contained no mention of thehousing profession or the Institute of Housing. In their section on housingmanagement in Hong Kong, they appear to have suggested that the idea ofcomprehensive housing management and the principles of housing managementand a housing management profession had emerged spontaneously in Hong Kong.62

There is no mention of the fact that the type of management63 in which all functionsrelated to housing development and management were combined into one singleprocess, was based on best practice which had been taken to Hong Kong byex-patriates from the 1950s onward. A report published in 1968 by The Institute ofHousing Managers64 emphasised that the housing manager should operate in thetwo � elds, ‘provision’ and ‘management’ and should also contribute to thedevelopment of policy. This was at the core of the approach of the HKHA: ‘Rightfrom the start the HKHA has emphasised the communication between the Con-struction and Housing Management Branches’. There was consultation withhousing managers’ community representatives and other statutory bodies through-out the design and construction stage.65 This is the essence of the uniquelydistinctive approach of professionalised housing management as practised inBritain and Hong Kong.

Rather than the idea of a comprehensive service and a housing professionemerging as Castells et al. have suggested , the duties of housing managers in acomprehensive housing authority were undoubtedly familiar to housing of� cials inHong Kong, particularly the ex-patriates who were occupying virtually all thesenior positions at the time. Such principles formed the core of the syllabus whichthe housing trainees were following from the 1960s. The potential for the develop-ment of the housing profession in parallel with the idea of an integrated ,comprehensive housing authority provided an attractive template for a Governorand senior of� cials seeking to improve the standards of housing and reducepolitical tension in Hong Kong.

Likewise, in their article on Hong Kong, Fong and Yeh66 have criticised thestandard of the resettlement estates but they have made no mention of the way inwhich housing management was introduced to try and raise the standards. These

62. Castells et al., The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome, p. 53.63. Ibid., p. 55.64. Institute of Housing, Year Book (Coventry, CIOH, 1968), pp. 14–16.65. HKHA, From Shelter to Home, p. 181.66. Fong and Yeh, ‘Hong Kong’.

462

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

examples illustrate how academic researchers can miss signi� cant issues whichare embedded in the professional and administrative worlds with which they areunfamiliar.

The role of bureaucrat professionals in the constitution

In Hong Kong housing mangers and other professionals and quasi-professional swere able to play an important role as part of the policy community. The essenceof the notion of a policy community is that policy is generated by a complexrelationship between professionals , politicians and civil servants.67 In Hong Kongthe powers of of� cials were considerable. The constitution and power in HongKong stemmed directly from the Governor who based his power on the RoyalPrerogative. As in most colonial territories, he was advised by a legislative council,which, at least until the reforms instituted by Governor Patten, was a bureaucraticrather than a legislative arm of government.68 It contained the senior civil servantand ‘unof� cials’, a mixture of local professionals and businessmen.

Such ‘unof� cials’ have traditionally been chosen because of their wealth, powerand in� uence in Hong Kong society and because of their support for governmentpolicy.69 According to Cuthbert70 in such a local state there has been a merging ofthe knowledge class with the bureaucracy and local capital allowing virtuallyabsolute authority for the bureaucratic elite.

Whereas in Britain the policy of creating centralised , comprehensive housingsystems in the early 1970s appeared to have been ‘a mistaken one’71 because ofinsensitivity to individua l needs, paternalism and lack of local democratic account-ability, to the power elite in Hong Kong a single authority was a means ofexercising direct central control and continued to be an appealing model.

The in� uence of the colonial link was clearly very signi� cant in the way inwhich many administrative and professional principles moved between cultures andcontinents. Harris72 has commented on the similarities between the traditionalChinese mandarinate, the world’s most systematic and continuous tradition ofgovernment which, according to Weber73 had a disciplined bureaucracy in the � fthcentury BC, and the British system of colonial power. Both tended to resist publicparticipation, preferring centralised authority stability and procedure.74 Wallis75

considered that the colonial state has normally been characterised as a

67. Laf� n, Professionalism and Policy: the Role of the Professions in the Central–Local Government Relationship,p. 211.

68. M. Wight, The Development of the Legislative Council 1606–1945 (London: Faber and Faber, 1946),pp. 170–171.

69. Miners, The Government and Politics of Hong Kong, p. 178.70. A. R. Cuthbert, ‘In search of the miraculous’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 15, (1991),

pp. 325–328.71. D. Clapham, ‘Organising and effective housing management service’, in D. Donnison and D. Maclennan, eds,

The Housing Service of the Future (Harlow: Longman/Institute of Housing, 1991), p. 43.72. Harris, Hong Kong A Study in Bureaucratic Politics, p. 128.73. M. Turner and D. Hulme, Governance , Administration and Development (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997),

p. 85.74. Ibid., p. 86.75. M. Wallis, Bureaucracy—Its Role in Third World Development (London: Macmillan, 1989), p. 5.

463

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

bureaucratic state. This was taken to its height in Hong Kong where the ‘general-ists’, many of them Hong Kong cadets,76 a specialist elite of administratorsimmersed in both Chinese and British traditions, were the effective decisionmakers. Partly because of the colonial tradition and partly because of the particularrelationship with China which inhibited moves towards more democratic structures,the senior civil servants took the role of politicians . Although they preferred toleave the market to take decisions where possible , if required to they would seeksolutions which as far as could be ascertained ‘accorded with the will of thepeople’.77 Hong Kong was effectively an administrative state and an example ofcorporatist philosophy in action.

Conclusions

We have demonstrated how the principles of professional comprehensive housingmanagement were transferred directly to Hong Kong by a small number ofex-patriate housing managers over a period of four decades. These principles, andthe profession which developed around them, have continued to play a key role inthe management of the largest public housing agency in the world.

The examination of a crucial period in the history of housing in Hong Kong hasshown that the professional account proved effective because evidence on theground appeared to demonstrate its value. Faced with a massive housing andpotential political crisis, particularly associated with the squatter areas and theresettlement estates, the government of� cials were able to see a potential solutionon their doorsteps. The comparatively small Housing Authority and HousingSociety who had recruited experienced ex-patriate members of the Society ofWomen Housing Managers who were committed to passing on their expertiselearnt in Britain, appeared to have the key.

Because of land shortages and development policies, the chosen method for thedelivery of a mass housing programme in Hong Kong was to build high density� atted developments. In addition, the resettlement programme meant that there wasa need for assistance in community building. For those affected by such pro-grammes, intensive high quality management was required to maintain the qualityof such a living environment.78 These factors allowed the housing managementprofession to advance and � ourish in the private as well as the public sector.

The concept of a large scale comprehensive authority accorded with the prevail-ing anti-democratic and corporatist political philosophy in the territory and allowedhousing managers to play a signi� cant role in the policy community. As well asthere being a conducive political climate for professionalism in housing in HongKong, a demonstrably effective type of housing management continues to berequired because of the nature of the housing stock.

In mid-1997, Britain’s lease on the New Territories expired and Hong Kongbecame a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. The

76. H. Lethbridge, ‘Hong Kong cadets, 1862–1941’, Journal of the Hon g Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society(1970); H. Lethbridge, Hong Kong: Stability and Change (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1978).

77. Harris, Hong Kong A Study in Bureaucratic Politics, p. 39.78. Wong, ed., Housing in Hong Kong a Multi-Disciplinary Study, p. 201.

464

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

HOUSING MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

quality of public housing provision in Hong Kong has been very widely recognisedand the quality of design, environment and management has continued to improve.Partly because of the quality of the provision and partly because of the low levelof rents compared with those in the private sector, attempts to increase levels ofowner occupation have been resisted.

The situation in Hong Kong housing today is very different to that whichprevailed in the 1950s or 1970s. It is the stated intention of the new ChiefExecutive of Hong Kong that the current proportion of three rented to one ownedproperty today will be reversed whilst the Management Enhancement Programme(MEP) brings together a number of comprehensive reforms and reviews to enhancethe whole spectrum of the departmental activity.79 Nevertheless there is still acommitment to a single uni� ed organisation and to professional ethos and valuesof commitment to the interest of the tenants. The profession has maintained a highstatus with many quali� ed members moving into the private sector and underpin-ning the considerable success of the commercial activities of the authority.80

Dropping of the direct colonial link could lead to a situation similar to that whichoccurred in Singapore and some of the other ex-colonies with the housingprofession fading away,81 but this is unlikely because the profession in Hong Kongis an indigenous rather than an ex-patriate dominated organisation as it was in thatterritory. At the time of the handover there were some pessimistic predictions ofthose who believe that corruption and overcrowding would lead to the fading awayof professional pride.82

However this has not occurred. The � rst Annual Report after the transferdemonstrates a high quality of optimism. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive hascommitted the government to support a building programme of 50,000 units peryear with improvements in building quality, to increase ownership to 70% andreduce waiting time,83 which has been backed by a rolling programme of landrelease. There has been an increase in the training budget and a merger ofmanagement and maintenance responsibilitie s at local level. Estate ManagementAdvisory Committees have been set up to enhance tenant involvement. In order toenhance ownership, from 1998 tenants can purchase their existing � ats. In the lightof the move to more ownership the organisation has pledged to promote itself as

79. HKHA, Annual Report, p. 23.80. The HKHA manages a large number of shopping centres, markets, restaurants and car parks. These are

promoted and marketed by in house staff and the commercial activities contribute substantially to the overall revenueof the HKHA. In 1997/98 the income from commercial activities was 5267 $Million compared with 9583 $ Millionfrom 670,000 rental � ats. Commercial activities produced a 2645 $Million operating surplus. For further details seeC. J. Mackay, ‘Big pro� ts from housing estate shops? A Hong Kong perspective’, Housing Review 43(4), (1995),pp. 119–120.

81. In the 1960s there were similar numbers of Institute of Housing Members in Singapore and Hong Kong butin recent years no members have been listed in Singapore.

82. Simon Jenkins has written: ‘To make it (Hong Kong) work requires justice, civil liberty and administrativecompetence. … I would expect Hong Kong to move slowly downmarket … Favouritism and socialism will blunt itscompetitive edge … and depress its property … Poorer housing estates will deteriorate … New immigrants fromhitherto unimagined persecution will colonise the hinterland estates … Lifts will fail, stairs will clog. The horrors ofhigh rise development is that it needs high rise maintenance as shanty towns do not. Hong Kong will begin to lookdrab and communist. See ‘Hong Kong: blighted by Britain’, The Times (Thursday 9 November 1996), p. 22.

83. HKHA, Annual Report, p. 21.

465

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014

CHRISTOPHER JOHN MACKAY

a service company which can compete with the private sector to provide manage-ment services for owners as well as tenants.84

The generally lower standards of housing development and management inChina mean that the experience and expertise of professional housing managersfrom Hong Kong may be greatly valued. According to the Chartered Institute ofHousing annual report, the key achievements of the Hong Kong Branch of theChartered Institute of Housing in 1997 were the maintenance of membershipgrowth in Hong Kong and launching a membership drive in China, the use ofChinese more extensively in branch publications and the promotion of links withhousing bodies in China.85 The branch intends to expand its services in the AsiaPaci� c Region generally and has arranged many visits and seminars in cities suchas Shenzen, Shanghai and Beijing.86

The Hong Kong Housing Authority has had close contact with a number ofChinese cities and government departments and a number of Chinese municipalitieshave sent substantial delegations to the annual CIOH conference in England. Justas the example of a small number of ex-patriate professionals in the small‘Authority’ led to major improvements in the management standards in theResettlement Department in the years following 1973, it appears that the conceptof a housing profession may gradually spread from its vibrant base in Hong Kongto the rest of China.

If we are to � nd members of the Institute of Housing in remote corners of Chinain the next decades, it will indeed be a remarkable testimony to the handful ofwomen who took ideas formed in the slums of 19th century London to Hong Kongin the years following the Second World War.

84. Ibid. p. 14.85. Chartered Institute of Housing, Yearbook and Membership Directory, p. 24.86. Hong Kong Branch, Chartered Institute of Housing.

466

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Cas

e W

este

rn R

eser

ve U

nive

rsity

] at

05:

36 1

5 O

ctob

er 2

014