In response to a recent blog post by Sir Richard Leese, we’ve been asking local groups to share their experiences of working with Manchester City Council. Sir Richard Leese says the council are open to working with any parties interested in environmental and development issues. This is the fourth article in a Meteor series called […]
From homes to assets: update on housing financialisation in Manchester
By Dr Richard Goulding and Dr Jonathon Silver: We’re at a critical time in Manchester’s urban development, with its city centre boom continuing since 2014 at the same time as the city’s model of property-led regeneration is coming under challenge both inside and outside the town hall. Building on GMHA’s previous research into financialisation, our […]
A Green New Deal could alleviate the housing crisis and climate change
Jonathan Atkinson from Greater Manchester’s Carbon Co-op, looks at the key issues concerning the Green New Deal and the multiple beneficial outcomes that could be brought about by its implementation. People wanting to learn more about the Green New Deal can do so at a free event this Friday at the Friends Meeting House in […]
Greater Manchester plan for jobs, homes…and the environment?
After several delays the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has published the new draft of its Spatial Framework. The previous version, published in late 2016 met considerable criticism, especially from groups campaigning on green space but also from other quarters, including our own critique of its assumptions of accelerated “economic growth”. On the other side the […]
Is Burnham’s A Bed Every Night scheme enough?
On the first day in his role as mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Andy Burnham pledged 15% of his £110,00 salary (£16,500) to his newly created Mayor’s homelessness fund. He had soared to victory in the election with 63% of the vote on the back of a pledge to end rough sleeping in Greater […]
Council in partnership with ‘most brutal police state in the Middle East’ says Amnesty International
Manchester City Council’s business partnership with the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, came under heavy criticism from activists and academics at a packed public meeting in the Central Hall on Oldham Street last Saturday. Describing the UAE as “the most brutal police state in the Middle East”, one speaker from […]
Can alternative models of ownership alleviate the housing crisis?
The housing crisis is a prime example of the economic term market failure. Politicians of different stripes have followed policies, introduced by Margaret Thatcher, of increasing market forces in the housing market, by promoting private ownership of homes, and degrading social housing by selling it off with heavy subsidies – while promising but failing to […]
Tenants are fighting back against the crisis in private renting
Tenants Union UK and Greater Manchester Housing Action are organising Renters’ Forums across the city to push for a renter-led policy response to the crisis of private renting. We are bringing together a diverse group of renters, policy makers and 3rd sector organisations to re-balance the power between landlords and renters, and give tenants a […]
Greater Manchester’s social and solidarity economy revealed
Transform GM – an action research project looking to understand, map and promote ‘alternative’ economic activity in Greater Manchester (GM) – have just launched a new website mapping the social and solidarity economy (SSE). The SSE is made up of initiatives which prioritise other values over the economic bottom line and, unlike many charities, are […]
Developers are turning our heritage into profit, and we’re paying them for the pleasure of it
Flats at Crusader Works, one of the largest surviving textile mills and new luxury property venture by Capital & Centric where one bedroom apartments are going for heady sums upwards of £189,000, are on sale again. Since the project began the MEN has released a slew of articles gushing about how the development, on Chapeltown […]