For the past few months The Meteor has been covering Manchester City Council’s suspension of its planning committee. We explain why we’re committed to continuing to cover this issue, which has seen controversial proposals previously rejected, approved under delegated powers. In March, Manchester City Council suspended its planning committee in response to the Covid-19 crisis. […]
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 […]
ACORN will fight to ensure there are no Covid-19 evictions
ACORN tenants union in Manchester are fighting against the threatened ejection of homeless people housed in hotels and the growing threat of eviction for private renters burdened with growing rent arrears due to lockdown. They have put together six key demands to create a healthier housing system nationally and are petitioning Greater Manchester councils to […]
Could hundreds of Rochdale’s social rent homes be saved by a regeneration rethink?
Rochdale councillors have risen-up against a regeneration scheme by Rochdale Borough Housing which threatened to demolish over 700 social rented homes, with no promise as to the number of social rent homes to replace them. The councillors and residents of the College Bank and Lower Fallinge estates are calling for the demolitions to be halted. […]
Tenants Union warn government’s proposed eviction freeze just ‘delays the threat’
The government’s freeze on evictions for 90 days came after intense lobbying by housing campaigners for greater protection for private renters. A ‘Stop the Evictions’ guide, produced by a collaboration of housing campaign groups may well come into play when the freeze ends on 30 September. The government’s three month freeze on eviction proceedings during […]
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 […]
77% of residents living in Greater Manchester cladded high rises concerned about fire risk
A survey of private renters, social renters and owners undertaken by Greater Manchester High Rise Task Force, led by Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, underlines the confusion and potential panic felt by those living in high rise properties and living with the risk of fire. Never mind coronavirus and floods, residents are still living in […]
‘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 […]
2020 Housing Vision: an opportunity to act against the housing crisis
There is widespread concern that our new Conservative government will do little to alleviate the housing crisis, that has become more severe over the last ten years while the Tories have been in power. This event hosted by organisations fighting for housing rights, aims to guide the hand of national and local governments to do […]