The number of people over the age of 55 living in rented accommodation is increasing. The Meteor visits Hopton Court, a social housing block in Hulme, and speaks with older renters about the challenges and uncertainty they face.
Define Affordable
How arbitrary definitions and a focus on ‘headline figures’ are exacerbating the housing crisis.
Social housing is key to alleviating the housing crisis, so why are we not building it?
National statistics show that across GM as social housing has fallen, housing waiting lists and temporary accommodation has risen. Mayor of Salford Paul Dennett and author of “Safe as Houses” Stuart Hodkinson give their views on the state of social housing and what needs to be done to improve it. It was the crises of […]
No affordable housing in four high rise developments, with 4,755 bed spaces, being decided on by reinstated Planning Committee
Manchester City Council’s full Planning Committee returns and four huge developments are on the table. Co-living towers, some of which breach national guidelines on livable space and two 51 storey skyscrapers with no affordable housing, are to be decided on. Manchester City Council’s Planning Committee sits again on 30 July tasked with signing off on […]
Manchester’s New Ruins, Ten Years On
Ten years after publishing A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, author Owen Hatherley reflects on the past decade of neoliberal development in Manchester and its impact on the city. Last weekend, a few items down on the headlines, below the pandemic and the protests and curfews in the US, was a story […]
Learning from housing histories: why we need to requisition property to address the pandemic
The UK Government’s commitment to upholding individualised private property during the global Coronavirus pandemic is matched only by their wilful ignorance of historical responses to crises. By Samuel Burgum of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield At the time of writing, they are ignoring modest calls by organisations such as Streets Kitchen to buy up hotel […]
Coronavirus pandemic: housing activists call for more protection for tenants in Greater Manchester
Renters reliant on sick pay are at risk of eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Housing activists in Greater Manchester are calling for more protection for those in the Private Rented Sector affected by the coronavirus and for the homeless to be housed during the crisis. Dismayed at the lack of protection offered to private renters […]
‘The Future is Human’ according to MIPIM – but whose future and for which humans?
Beth Redmond questions Manchester City Councils involvement in the MIPIM international real-estate conference in Cannes, beginning on 10 March 2020. A four day extravaganza, where lavish hospitality is provided by property development companies hoping to strike a deal with those who can offer them the land to build on. The theme of this year’s MIPIM […]
Official figures show a drop in Manchester rough sleeping for first time in years – but are they accurate?
Rough sleeping in Manchester has dropped for the first time in years according to official figures released today, but research carried out by the BBC suggests the official figures underestimate the true scale of the problem five-fold. The rough sleeping count in Manchester has dropped for the first time in six years. In 2018 a […]
Leadership candidates lay out their visions for the future of the Labour Party at Manchester hustings
A lively hustings for Labour Party leadership candidates at Manchester’s Central Convention Complex last night covered a lot of ground including issues around: Brexit, housing, transport, political reform, the environment and antisemitism. The three contenders for the Labour Party leadership, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Keir Starmer, laid out their visions for the future of […]