THE parent body of Isle of Arran Homes is offering staff redundancy terms in a bid to cut services on the island.

In a letter dated April 9, Bob McDougall, Chief Executive of Trust Housing Association, has written to tenants advising them that staff will be made redundant and all administrative and clerical support functions will be transferred to the mainland.

The IOAH office on the island will close and the housing and property officer, care and repair officer, and clerical assistant will be moved to one or both of IOAH’s Sheltered Developments, though the details on this are not yet clear.

Responding to the letter, Katy Clark, MP for North Ayrshire and Arran said: “I am concerned about the loss of service on the Isle of Arran.

“I understand that the Isle of Arran Homes office will shut on July 31 and four members of staff are being made redundant from this date.

"While the letter from Chief Executive Bob McDougall states that two care and repair officers will retain their posts, these are in fact funded by North Ayrshire Council and Ayrshire and Arran Health Board exclusively to assist the over-60s.

“I fully appreciate the concern that tenants will have regarding these redundancies and office closure and I am aware of similar situations in other housing associations where the centralisation of support services has led to numerous complaints and problems.

“If understand that tenants are seeking to campaign to retain the services on Arran, and I am fully supportive of this. If any tenants wish to express their concerns or require assistance over these proposed closures then I would be happy to discuss this directly with them.”