GOVERNMENT QUARTERS (Replacement of old quarters by multi-storey flats)

Mr Tay Boon Too asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that some Government quarters, for example, those in the Haig Road and Farrer Park areas, are old and are rented out to civil servants at uneconomic rents, and if he will consider pulling down such quarters and erecting multi-storey flats instead, so that more families of civil servants can be accommodated and more rents collected.

Dr Goh Keng Swee: Mr Speaker, Sir, the provision of quarters for civil servants is a colonial practice which we have inherited and have been unable to terminate because this involves a reduction of perquisites enjoyed by occupiers of these quarters. It seems to be an enshrined principle that no civil servant shall have his conditions of service made worse off in any circumstances, though I cannot find any authority either in law or in the Constitution for this principle. Governments of modern states do not provide quarters at low rents to government employees except in special cases, such as military camps, lighthouses and so on. We should move slowly towards this position and are, in fact, doing so. When occupiers of quarters retire, or resign or are dismissed, it is the intention not to rent out these quarters to other employees but rent them out to the public at economic rents. Civil servants should be encouraged to own their own houses, and more and more of them are in fact doing so. I agree that some of the more ancient quarters could with advantage be pulled down to make way for high-rise flats. Their occupants can be moved to comfortable Housing Board flats. This is true not only for quarters in Haig Road and Farrer Park but also elsewhere.

Mr Ho See Beng (Bras Basah): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance says that the provision of quarters to civil servants by the colonial Government was a bad practice. Will the Minister agree with me that the P.A.P., a socialist Government, should adopt a good practice?

Dr Goh Keng Swee: Yes, Sir.