Onchan Commissioners is set to increase its rates for the next financial year due to ‘external financial pressures’.

They will be set at 431 pence in the pound, a rise of four percent, which lead member for finance, Anthony Allen, said is ‘modest’ compared to last year.

In 2024, they were set at 411 pence in the pound.

The commissioners have a number of ‘planned expenditures’ including tree management, new play area equipment and street lighting replacements to pay for this financial year.

Mr Allen said that money has also been budgeted for the elections in April.

He commented: ‘The reason for the increase is that there’s been external pressures from some of the essential services that we buy in, for example insurance. There’s also been other increased costs imposed by central government, which we have no control over.

‘We’ve had to include an amount to pay for the local government election, which is on April 24 this year. Obviously at this point, we don’t know whether or not the election will be contested, but the correct way of moving forward was to allocate an amount in the budget. Hopefully, we will have an election.

‘The notable planned expenditure includes a update on our software for rates itself. We’ve got additional tree management and maintenance, replacement play area equipment, a commercial garage door replacement and street lighting projects for various locations within the authority.

‘For all of those reasons, as well as investing in our assets and the staff themselves and good governance, have to put the rates up to cover all of those costs.’

The four percent increase from the 2024 to 2025 financial year is significantly lower than last year’s increase of ten percent from 2023 to 2024.