Co-living: a new housing model in a broken system

After several months of rejection huge co-living developments are now coming to Manchester. Is it a new form of community living or another extractive product in the city’s ongoing property boom?

With strong links to the city’s financialised student housing sector, is this the type of housing we should be building during Covid-19 and the ongoing housing crisis?

Council gets personal in row over Central Retail Park

As expected, the redevelopment of the former Central Retail Park was approved by Manchester City Council’s executive. But it was not without drama, as terse words were exchanged between Labour councillors and the opposition Liberal Democrat representative.

Manctopia: reality TV in a journalism jumper

The series trailer and episode lead-ins for the BBC documentary Manctopia are suggestive of a series seeking to analyse the inequalities associated with Manchester’s “property boom”.

Instead, this glossy reality TV entrenches a misguided message that uncontrolled investor-driven urban development is the only possible trajectory. Its winners vs losers framing negatively impacts those communities experiencing the pressures of gentrification on a daily basis.