Land Clearance and Resettlement Working Party is formed

By 1955, there was a pressing need to clear land and resettle families in Singapore. Land was required by the government to build schools, hospitals, roads, housing and other public projects.^[1] There were also issues of overcrowding in the city centre and poor housing settlements that lacked proper road access, as well as water and sanitary facilities.^[2]

As part of the government’s “Operation Clean-Up” initiative to remove squatters,^[3] then Minister for Local Government, Lands and Housing, Abdul Hamid bin Haji Jumat, formed a working party on 29 August 1955 to look into the squatter problem, and to propose solutions that would include the establishment of a Squatter Authority and introduction of schemes to help occupants resettle into new homes.^[4]

The Land Clearance and Resettlement Working Party was set up with members from the Rural Board, Singapore Improvement Trust, Commissioner of Lands, City Council, Public Works and the Singapore Attap Dwellers Association.^[5] Their findings and recommendations were submitted to the government in February 1956^[6] and released to the public as the Report of the Land Clearance and Resettlement Working Party in April that same year.^[7]

From its study of the squatter problem, the working party found that most of the families that needed to be resettled were not squatters. Instead, the majority were long-time residents who had leased plots of land from landowners and erected semi-permanent houses on the land. The study also found that occupants were resistant to the move for reasons ranging from the lack of help in finding suitable alternative accommodation to financial losses that would be incurred from building new houses to the loss of certain livelihoods such as farming from the forced move.^[8]

The working party also noted that the temporary or traditional houses found in these settlements, mostly made of plank walls and attap roofing, were acceptable as long as they were well spaced out to minimise fire risk.^[9] However, there existed pockets of slums in the city where the occupants of these informal housing structures were living in unsanitary conditions due to overcrowding and the lack of access to proper roads, and water and sanitary facilities.^[10]

The report estimated that some 2,800 families would be affected by resettlement, and they were made up of three different categories of people – urban dwellers, semi-urban dwellers and farmers.^[11] To mitigate the squatter problem, the working party proposed that the government should assume the responsibility of finding alternative accommodation for the affected parties instead of just paying an allowance to the occupants and then leaving them to find new living arrangements. The party also drew up several re-housing and settlement schemes, some of which included compensation packages for the three different categories of people affected by land clearance.^[12]

The working party also recommended that the Singapore Improvement Trust be appointed to take charge of resettlement and land clearance.^[13] To this end, the Land Clearance and Resettlement Department was set up as part of the Singapore Improvement Trust in January 1957.^[14]

References
1. Burlock, S. G. (1956).Report of the Land Clearance and Resettlement Working Party (p. 3). Singapore: Printed at the Government Printers Office. Call no.: RCLOS 711.4095951 SIN; Singapore Improvement Trust. (1958). Annual report 1957 (p. 28). Singapore: Singapore Improvement Trust. Call no.: RCLOS 711.4095951 SIN-[RFL].
2. Burlock, 1956, p. 7; Singapore. Legislative Assembly. Debates: Official Report. (1955, April 22). Governor’s Address (Vol.1, col. 8). Retrieved April 9, 2014, from Parliament of Singapore website: http://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/report.jsp?currentPubID=00068852-ZZ
3. Giant land survey to help the squatters. (1956, 29 September). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
4. Burlock, 1956, p. 2; Squatters should be compensated says official report. (1956, April 23). The Straits Times, p. 2. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
5. Burlock, 1956, p. 2.
6. Singapore Improvement Trust, 1958, p. 28.
7. Burlock, 1956; The Straits Times, 23 Apr 1956, p. 2.
8. Burlock, 1956, pp. 3–4.
9. Burlock, 1956, p. 5.
10. Burlock, 1956, p. 7.
11. Burlock, 1956, pp. 5–6.
12. Burlock, 1956, pp. 8–12.
13. Burlock, 1956, p. 8.
14. Singapore Improvement Trust, 1958, p. 28.