The Douglas rate levy for the 2021-22 financial year has been set at 451p in the pound, an increase of 1.6% over the previous year.

Council leader David Christian said that in setting the rate, the council had been sensitive to ’the real economic uncertainty and hardship’ being experienced by ratepayers as the island continued to be affected by the fallout from Covid-19.

He said that Covid-19 had exacted ’a heavy toll’ on the council’s finances, adding that the negative impact, while significant, had proved ’less than predicted and, crucially, manageable’. He attributed this to the vast majority of Douglas ratepayers, tenants and other customers ’playing their part by continuing to make regular payments’, thereby providing ’dependable’ income streams.

To highlight this, he said that at the end of December 2020 the rate collection rate stood at 94.6 per cent, just 1.1 per cent below target, and that there was ’every indication’ that the collection rate might exceed 99 or even 99.5 per cent by the end of the 2020-21 financial year.

Loss of car park income had been a significant factor in the rate-setting process. For April to December 2020 income from Shaw’s Brow and the Bottleneck car parks - where pay-as-you-go charges had been suspended during the lockdown - was £151,000 below budget.

Charges were waived again during the January 2021 lockdown, with a predicted loss of £28,000 - and would be frozen for the 2021-22 financial year.

Further financial impact of the pandemic was felt with the cancellation of the commercial rent increase for 2020-21 which cost around £93,000; cancellation of the 2020 TT and Festival of Motorcycling which lost £54,000 in income, and a further £54,000 for the 2021 TT and possible cancellation of the Festival of Motorcycling.

In terms of retail, Councillor Christian said that the ’think local’ slogan had been more important as high streets struggled to recover, adding that Douglas town-centre footfall for December 2020 was only 5.8 per cent lower than in 2019, whereas in the UK December 2020 footfall was only 50 per cent of the previous year.

How does pence in the pound work for rates?

The current system is of rates based on a 1969 valuation of all of the property that was on the Isle of Man at that time.

The detail of each property was documented on the basis of square foot and a rental value was attributed as if the property was going to be rented and the landlord would meet the rates, maintenance and any other repairs.

This rental value is called the Gross Value.

Any properties built or improved on the Island since 1969 are compared to a similar property that was in existence at that time and attributed a similar value.

The Isle of Man Government effectively carries out these assessments and ascertains property value for the rating authorities.