Douglas Council will talk to its commercial tenants that may be struggling financially because of Covid-19.

However, council leader David Christian has warned the authority does not have a ’bottomless pit’ of cash.

At its first public sitting since March, councillors backed the decision by the executive committee, chaired by Mr Christian, to offer three month’s rent-free to all council-owned commercial properties, funded by reserves from the maintenance fund for the properties.

Councillor Carole Crawley (pictured) asked Mr Christian if the committee had looked further than three months.

She said that some of the council’s tenants are ’paying good rent’ and while appreciating there is no bottomless pit she is ’well aware that three months is not quite enough for some businesses’.

Mrs Crawley said it would not be giving money away, but helping tenants and trying to avoid a large number of empty units.

Mr Christian said the decision had been taken after ’a lot of consideration’ and acknowledged that in some cases, three months isn’t enough for some businesses as they’ve been hit hard by Covid-19.

However, he said if any tenants are struggling financially, businesses can approach the council to look at solutions that would help each business on a case by case approach.

Following a supplementary question from Mrs Crawley, Mr Christian confirmed that businesses should contact the director of finance who will then assist in working with the committees that would be able to help them.