Paying council house rents essential for maintenance, councillor says

Douglas Council maintains the largest stock of local authority housing on the island

It is "absolutely essential" that social housing tenants in the Isle of Man's capital continue to pay their rent, a councillor has said.

Douglas councillor Devon Watson said the money was needed to maintain and improve local authority housing, including dealing with damp.

Officers were helping those "struggling" with the cost of living by arranging payment plans, he said.

Current arrears of about £70,000 were not a "huge issue", he added.

Mr Watson, who is chairman of the council's housing and property committee, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the figure was comparable to previous years and there was "always a level of rental arrears that will happen with any authority".

"One thing that we are really happy to see is that despite the cost of living crisis, people have continued to pay their rent," he added.

'Compassionate approach'

Local authority rents across the island are set to go up by 5% in April, a rise the Department of Infrastructure said was due to the increased cost of maintaining the properties.

It follows rent rises ranging from 1% to 2.1% over the previous four years.

Mr Watson said: "We don't have a policy of evicting people because they were unable to pay, we try and take a very compassionate approach.

"This means that working with people and obviously building those relationships between tenants and officers is something that we are really keen to see going forward."

Council officers would continue to work with tenants to ensure that the overall rent arrears total "doesn't increase dramatically" in the months to come, he added.