Mid Rent Scheme to boost home ownership scrapped

The five homes used for the scheme would to being public sector housing

An Isle of Man government scheme to help people get on to the housing ladder has been scrapped, the infrastructure minister has confirmed.

The Mid Rent Scheme was designed to help those who do not qualify for public sector housing save for a deposit, by setting rents 20% below the private sector.

Tim Crookall said only three of 14 people who had used it in Colby during the five-year pilot had moved on to own their own homes as a result.

Legal advice had also revealed existing housing legislation only allowed for schemes that "directly assisted property purchase", which had prompted a review of the scheme's viability, he said.

He said the remaining 11 had gone back to renting privately, with feedback indicating the slow rate of saving and the distance between Colby and Douglas were responsible factors.

Along with the low uptake, the five years it would take for a deposit to be saved for a “modest” property on the island meant it was “too slow to enable sufficient turnaround of the properties to assist desired volumes of individuals", he added.

Not working

Rob Callister MHK said removing the discounted rents as an option was a “backwards step”, while Jason Moorhouse MHK asked if there had been any attempt to adapt the initiative.

Mr Crookall said the scheme "as is, wasn’t working" and an update on proposed improvements to financial assistance schemes for home ownership would be presented to Tynwald in September.

"We will go away and review it to hopefully make it work because I do believe that there is something along these lines that will work for people," he added.

The minister said 17 of the 20 people on the scheme's waiting list had said they were no longer interested when contacted, and the homes would revert to being local authority housing in future once current tenancies ended.