RETIRED and serving prison staff on Portland claim they have been hit by an ‘unjust’ 240 per cent rent increase for their homes.

Residents at Alma Terrace, a block of 12 flats next to the Portland Young Offenders Institution (YOI), have received notice that their rent will rise by £335 a month after ownership of the properties changed hands. They fear they will struggle to pay the new rents or may have to move out.

The tenants claim their flats are run down after years of neglect by the Prison Service and new owners the Crown Estate have introduced the rise in rent without improving the properties. Many of the occupants have lived in Alma Terrace for decades and were paying around £140 a month in rent to the Prison Service.

As of February 1 the monthly bill is set to soar to £475.

Martin Mitchell, an officer at Portland YOI who has lived at Alma Terrace for 18 years, said: “The worst thing about the building is the actual roof.

“Every year the upstairs floods and it comes down to us in the flats at the bottom.

“For years and years they have been neglected and we have tried to buy it off them but were told we couldn’t for security reasons and now they are going to the Crown Estate.

“It’s not going to be much better with the new ownership because they’ve said they can’t touch them because they’re listed buildings.”

Mr Mitchell, 45, who lives in his flat with his wife and two children, said the residents had little option but to pay the increased rent and that some might struggle to make ends meet in these difficult economic times.

He said: “We’ve basically been told ‘the choice is yours, either pay it or get out’. We pay the same as prison officers up in London and everywhere else and suddenly it has gone up an extra £335.

“All that’s happened is we have transferred from one government department to another.”

Mr Mitchell’s colleague Tony Luff, 53, who has lived at Alma Terrace for more than 20 years, said residents were mainly angry over how the increase has been brought in and the fact the flats had not been brought up to standard.

A Crown Estate spokesman said investment was planned.

“The Crown Estate is due to take ownership of a number of properties at Alma Terrace in Portland in February 2009.

“Significant investment is planned for the properties following the transfer.

“Some tenants there have traditionally paid subsidised rent to their current landlord.

“As a commercial organisation, The Crown Estate will have a statutory duty to bring these rents back in line with market levels.”