Property in Manchester is not only reaching for the sky: its ownership is extending across the globe. With investors keen to cash in on the lucrative high rise luxury housing boom in Manchester city centre, the number of properties owned by companies registered overseas has risen by 8.8% in just eight months. Tower blocks are […]
Endemic avoidance of payments to councils by property developers revealed, while affordable housing is sacrificed for profit
A comprehensive report on the huge sums of money fuelling the housing development boom in the city centre has revealed the scale of non-payment of development funding to the council: only 8% of housing development in Manchester City Centre included in the study had any Section 106 agreement at all. The lack of money collected […]
Manchester is putting Housing First – and the results look good
This article is part of ‘The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester‘ series. Decadence, procrastination and occasional nudity. It would be tricky to explain some of our private domestic activities to an imagined third-party observer, but anarchic indulgence is for many the wholly necessary backend to the economically functional front which the aforementioned observer would probably wish […]
Why is the Labour Party falling out over Haringey?
Haringey council leader Claire Kober announced she would stand down last week, following an intervention by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) into the dispute within the Haringey Labour party over a controversial regeneration plan with Lendlease, a private developer with a dubious history. Kober was determined to press ahead with a plan that had been […]
The Addy land squat: a missed opportunity for Hulme?
When masked bailiffs arrived to clear the North Hulme Adventure Playground of a group of squatters and dismantle the homes they had built there, it marked the end of the most recent in a series of occupations, and eventual evictions, of non-residential buildings across Manchester. The site’s residents spent three months clearing, building and planning […]
Austerity: the false economy increasing homelessness (part two)
Second article in ‘The Meteor Explores: Homelessness in Manchester‘ series. Part one of this story can be viewed here: The safety net of the ‘cradle to grave’ welfare state, implemented by Atlee’s government after the Second World War, is becoming increasingly threadbare due to the economic and humanitarian degradations of austerity. Increasing numbers in the […]
Who is this city for?
Rochdale Councillor John Blundell, who is a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Planning and Housing Commission, last week published a piece in Manchester Confidential entitled ‘Why foreign property investors are not a bad thing for Manchester‘. We welcome his willingness to participate in public debate about the future of our city region, but […]
Manchester’s property investment boom funded through tax dodging offshore companies and unethical international investment
Towering apartment blocks going up all over Manchester and Salford are evidence of a property investment boom underway in the midst of a housing crisis for many. Research has revealed that this boom is fueled by foreign investment capital channeled through layers of offshore holding companies that allow the lucky few involved to avoid paying […]