Every local authority in the island has seen an increase in rent arrears, with the exception of Onchan District Commissioners and Ramsey and Northern housing authority.

Across the island the total of social housing rent arrears rose from £282,963.66 in January to £666,908.03 in October.

Unsurprisingly Douglas Council, which is the island’s largest housing authority, saw the biggest increase, up from £29,024.33 to £180,996.40. The Department of Infrastructure also saw a large increase from £30,004.00 to £136,586.77.

As the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown hit, most of the island’s housing authorities saw large increases in arrears, with major towns such as Ramsey, Peel, Port Erin and Castletown all seeing increases of more than £20,000.

However Onchan Commissioners saw a decrease in its tenants’ arrears, falling from £90,888.51 down to £85,563.84 between January and October. Meanwhile the Ramsey and Northern housing authority saw its arrears fall from £799.00 to £556.02.

Onchan’s lead member for housing, Anthony Allen told the Courier that the commissioners’ finance team have ’effectively managed the rent arrears for the period January to October 2020 and will endeavour to maintain this high standard of financial management’.

We have recently reported how Douglas Council has managed to reduce the number of its tenants who are in arrears and not paying anything towards it.

The figures were released to Tynwald following a request from Julie Edge (Onchan) who also asked for details on how many people were on each authority’s housing waiting list.

Infrastructure Minister Tim Baker revealed that the total number of people on the waiting lists rose from 683 to 743 between January and October.

Every authority saw an increase in their waiting list throughout the year, with the exception of Cooil Roi Elderly Persons Complex in Laxey which saw a slight decrease and Port St Mary which remained constant.

lTo read about Douglas Council’s evictions policy, see this week’s Manx Independent, which is on sale now.