No, Councillor Blundell – the solution to begging isn’t fines, it’s fixing our broken housing system

Councillor John Blundell strongly proposed in Manchester Confidential that Manchester City Council should start fining “aggressive beggars” as it is “the only solution” to what he describes as “organised begging”. His use of the term “beggar” comes off the back of Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese in his leader’s blog describing Christmas as “peak […]

Greater Manchester people to exchange ideas for ending housing crisis

Guest article from the Salford Star: An open ‘housing ideas exchange’ this Thursday aims to bring people from the community together with professionals, academics, activists and charities to “inspire and encourage new ideas around the housing crisis”. Anyone can attend and take part. Lack of affordable housing, private rent hikes, tenants’ rights and homelessness are […]

Lifeshare, the homeless charity facing homelessness needs help

Manchester homeless charity Lifeshare is in need of a new home due to the controversial development plans for Angel Meadows. Up to 756 private rented sector apartments will be built there under the control of an offshore tax haven registered company called Far Eastern Consortium International Ltd. Due to the development, Lifeshare’s home for over […]

Manchester 1, Tories 0: Take Back Manchester Festival outperforms conference in the rainy city

“Get off your arse and do something..” sang the Commoners Choir on Saturday night, at a Partisan pre-protest party entitled ‘Fuck the Tories’. The following day, an estimated 50,000 people got off their collective arse to demonstrate outside the 2017 Conservative Party Conference, under shared slogans of ‘No More Austerity’, ‘Scrap the Pay Cap’ and […]

Research reveals 89% of homeless experience worsening mental health

Research has uncovered the shocking toll being homeless has on the health of this most vulnerable and growing community. The results, which included responses from those living in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough, revealed 89% of homeless people completing the survey experienced worsening mental health due to their lack of secure good quality housing. 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 […]

Emotions run high at GM mayoral hustings on the housing crisis

Mayoral candidates for Greater Manchester (GM) were left in no doubt about the dire effects of the housing crisis on its citizens at a hustings to discuss the issue. The panel were bombarded with questions and statements, often with distressing accounts of individual cases, over a broad range of issues including poor housing conditions, the […]

Mayoral hustings on the housing crisis in Greater Manchester

A chance to publicly challenge the mayoral candidates for Greater Manchester on their plans to tackle the housing crisis in the region is being offered at a special hustings at St Philips Chapel, Salford on Monday 3 April. There are many factors that contribute to the housing crisis, including rising rents/house prices, cuts to local […]

Government support for hard working families leaves record levels in poverty

Despite a government that continually expresses its support for hard working families, a recent report on poverty shows that a record 55% of people in poverty are from working households. The report also highlights the disproportionately high level of disabled people living in poverty and the increasingly severe effects of the housing crisis on poverty […]