Crossword Genius

Tenant perhaps offering regular payment to save face (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

resident

'tenant perhaps' is the definition.
(tenant is a kind of resident)

'regular payment to save face' is the wordplay.
'regular payment' becomes 'rent' (rent is a kind of regular payment).
'to save' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'face' becomes 'side' ('side' can be a synonym of 'face'**).
'rent' going around 'side' is 'RESIDENT'.

'offering' is the link.

(Other definitions for resident that I've seen before include "Citizen" , "Local" , "Denizen" , "always in memory" , "Inmate" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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