A High Court judge accused the Government yesterday of wanting to evict Rennie's Mill residents so it could cash in on the huge profits to be made from private developers.
Mr Justice Raymond Sears is expected to rule on the plight of the residents today.
He said the Government had promised them in 1961 they could stay on the site indefinitely.
The promise appeared to have been kept until it was decided to launch the development of a new town.
Mr Justice Sears said: 'The only need to evict them now is because you want the land. It is worth billions of dollars, this barren bit of hillside. You are going to sell part of it to private developers. You are going to get private housing. There is very substantial revenue to be had.' Geoffrey Ma QC, for the Government, replied: 'I don't deny that. But it is also a community project with public housing.' Newspaper reports in 1992 estimated the value of the land to be $30 billion.
Mr Justice Sears later accepted that clearing the area for redevelopment was a 'perfectly proper motive'.
Thousands of people used to live in the community built by former Kuomintang soldiers and their families in the 1950s.