COUNCIL tenants in Douglas are being urged to downsize to more appropriately sized properties - to free them up for families who really need them.
And chairman of the housing and property advisory committee, Councillor Carol Malarkey, said following a housing review, rules were being more rigorously enforced on tenancies.
She was speaking after one resident in Pulrose contacted the Examiner to complain that they were being told to move out of their three-bedroom house where they had lived for half a century.
Graham Skillicorn, 53, said he had lived in the property on Springfield Avenue for 51 years but had been asked to move into a flat in Lord Street instead as his name is not on the tenancy.
The tenancy is in the name of his father Brian who is in the Southlands care home in Port Erin. Graham’s mother Joan died in 2003. He said: ‘It’s my family home and I’m not going to leave.’
Mr Skillicorn claimed his former MHK Adrian Duggan had helped to arrange the transfer of the tenancy a number of years ago but the Corporation had said it could not find the paperwork. He said there were issues with the boiler and a damaged sewer main at the property but he could not move into a smaller property as his children and grandchildren come to stay.
But Mrs Malarkey said: ‘Douglas housing do ask people to downsize especially if a tenancy is not in their own name and especially if a resident is in a property not suitable to their needs.’
But she added: ‘The last thing we want to do is throw anybody out on the street. We will always be sympathetic to people but we have to strike the right balance between being sympathetic and finding the right housing for them. We want to make sure we have the correct people in the correct housing.’
Mrs Malarkey insisted the issue of people being in council homes that were too large for them was not a major issue in Douglas but that there were always those who flouted the system.
She said there had been no change in policy but the rules were now being more rigorously applied in relation to those residents whose names do not appear on the tenancy agreement – even if they have lived in the property with their family for years.
‘There are other people who need these properties. You shouldn’t have a single bloke in a three-bed house when there is a family waiting on the list to go in there.
‘In the private sector, if there is a lease and the person living there does not hold the lease then they have to move out. It’s exactly the same with the public sector.’
Douglas Corporation is responsible for a housing stock of more than 2,200 homes. Mrs Malarkey said the borough’s housing staff were working very heard to ensure that tenants lived in appropriate housing which met the right criteria.
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