Guest article from The Salford Star: Latest figures published by the Government for 2016/17 show that no social rent housing was built in Salford, while just 15 houses were gained through Section 106 agreements – all of which were either for the more expensive ‘affordable’ rent or shared ownership. This is just more proof of […]
The Mayor’s Green Summit: a balance sheet
Guest article from Steady State Manchester: I attended the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Green City Summit on 21 March: here is a quick review. The event was, as you’d expect, a mixed bag, with good and bad aspects. It is too soon to make an assessment but here, from a Viable Economy perspective, are the important […]
Salford Council reveals staggering levels of homelessness
Guest article from The Salford Star: As the Homelessness Reduction Act kicks in this month, Salford City Council is about to publish its new 44-page Homeless Strategy which reveals shocking and staggering levels of homelessness in the city. Included in the report is the fact that Salford has a higher level of rough sleeping than […]
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 […]
As Manchester gets no affordable housing from developers, Shelter urges end to planning evasion
Guest article from the Salford Star: Research by housing charity Shelter has shown that where ‘viability assessment’ has been used by developers in planning, 79% of affordable homes have been lost. Shelter looked at planning applications for eleven councils, including Manchester where no affordable houses were provided as developers used the get-out. Separate research by […]
Salford apartments branded ‘Downtown Manchester’ flogged to Knightsbridge investors
Guest article from the irrepressible Salford Star: Luxury flats in Ordsall, already branded ‘Downtown Manchester’ by developer, Villafont, are being flogged to the rich in Knightsbridge as investment properties, promising a yield of 7%, with an average price of around £270,000. When planning permission was granted by Salford City Council two years ago, the developers […]