PREMISES NO. 51 CRAIG ROAD

Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam asked the Minister for National Development if he will give an assurance that the premises No. 51 Craig Road and the adjoining premises will not be reduced to rubble before the families evicted from No. 51 Craig Road and who are now living on the pavements outside the premises have been given alternative accommodation and if he will say when the families will be given alternative accommodation.

Mr Teh Cheang Wan: No. 51 Craig Road, a 3-storey pre-war shophouse, was gazetted for compulsory acquisition in December 1981. At that time, there were 5 tenants in the premises. The owner of the premises had obtained a court judgement in September 1980 requiring these five tenants to quit the premises. The judgement was made with the tenants' consent. This is a private matter between the owner and the tenants under due process of law. The owner executed the writ of possession in July 1983 and thereafter delivered vacant possession of the premises to the Government.

Where a property is acquired on vacant possession basis, the responsibility for removing and compensating tenants lies not with the Government but with the landlord. This is why awards for property acquired on vacant possession basis are very much higher than awards for encumbered property.

The Government does not grant re-housing benefits to former tenants of property acquired on vacant possession basis for two reasons.

The first reason is that the supply of resettlement units is limited. If the Government were to provide re-housing priority to such former tenants, there will be delay in the relocation of resettlement cases which genuinely qualify for re-housing. The waiting period for public applicants on HDB's waiting list will also be lengthened.

The second reason is that landlords affected by acquisition will be able to persuade their tenants to come to arrangements which lead to judgements for possession with consent being made by the court. Then the burden of relocating tenants will pass to the Government while landlords reap enhanced acquisition awards on vacant possession basis, after their tenants have reached private arrangements with the landlords.

No. 51 Craig Road was acquired on vacant possession basis because the landlord was able to deliver vacant possession after a judgement by consent. Therefore, the previous tenants do not qualify for alternative HDB accommodation.