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Hello,
It’s probably fair to say that Manchester isn’t the most attractive city. Of course there are beauty spots and grand designs that populate mainly the city centre, but all-in-all it’s a rather concrete affair.
So when reporter Ethan Davies presented this article detailing the ‘Seven Wonders of Greater Manchester’ I was intrigued. He insists we deserve a ‘cross-city-region heritage tour’, so he’s created one.
Top of the list is Stockport Pyramid - a structure many have joked actually inspired the Egyptians in their own efforts. It was originally intended as one of five pyramids making up a Stopfordian ‘Valley of the Kings’, but that vision evaporated when the original developer went bust.
Also on Ethan’s list are the ‘Four Pillars of the Rochdale Canal’, Peel Tower and John Rylands Library. He has also included the big white columns that stand next to Nando’s at White City - a structure he has rather grandly referred to as the ‘White City Botanical Gateway’.
On to the news. In today’s newsletter we’ll be discussing the charities urging the government to get a grip on the cost of living crisis, the fears of those living in the shadow of the Etihad and a housing row that's rumbling on in Didsbury. Let’s begin.
Catching the tram to keep warm
Over the last year, reporter Paige Oldfield has been speaking to people across Greater Manchester about the cost of living crisis.
This week, she spoke to Arthur Dormer, a pensioner who says he rides around on the Metrolink to keep warm and fears it may soon become a daily occurrence.
The 71-year-old, from Droylsden, got rid of his car to cover gas bills. “We’ve just had to cut down. It’s horrendous,” he says. “I’ll have to start going on the tram and walk around Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s to keep warm and keep moving.”
Asked about the future, he says: “There isn’t one. They’re just going to take whatever you’ve got.”
With a new energy price cap on the way and the government's energy bill discount coming to an end, many are increasingly worried about the cost of heating their homes.
“My brother-in-law is 86 and he’s just had a bill for £400. He lives on his own, so he’s not cooking a dozen meals a day. Our bills have gone up by £80 in just two weeks,” Arthur says.
The UK’s new normal
While Arthur contemplates his rising bills, a group of charities has found that almost a quarter of households regularly run out of money for essentials.
Nationally, 37 per cent of people end the month with no money left over, while 24 per cent run out of money for essentials either most months or most days, a survey for the Together Through This Crisis initiative has found.
Overall, six per cent of people said they could not pay for essentials most days, rising to 11 per cent in the most deprived areas. Some 67 per cent described the UK Government as ‘not doing enough’ to address the cost-of-living crisis.
Together Through This Crisis has been set up by Save the Children, Turn2us, Little Village, Shelter and 38 Degrees. They have written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asking them to ‘take action to ensure the crisis illustrated by these figures does not become the UK’s new normal’.
Their letter calls for effective, ongoing energy bill support, the expansion of free school meals to all children, prioritising families receiving Universal Credit or equivalent benefits and unfreezing housing benefit.
Dan Paskins, director of UK impact at Save The Children, said: “Families are now existing month to month, even day to day in some cases, and going without essentials, making us deeply worried about the impact this has on children.”
A government spokesperson said they are ‘protecting the most vulnerable households across the UK’ with £12 billion of direct support in 2023-24.
Calls to bring private rental sector in line with social housing
More than half of private renters in England, including 1.6 million children, are living in excessively cold, damp or mouldy homes, a survey by Citizens Advice suggests. Some 2.7 million households are struggling with the poor living conditions brought on by a combination of high energy bills and a lack of insulation, the charity found.
The problem is especially bad in the least energy efficient homes, with private tenants being 73 per cent more likely to be living with damp if they are in a property with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D-G rather than A-C. Tenants are 89 per cent more likely to experience excessive cold in a D-G rated property than one rated A-C.
Citizens Advice say tenants in the private rental sector are some of the worst affected by the cost-of-living crisis with the average tenant in England paying £350 more a year on heating because of poorly insulated and damp homes, while those in the least efficient properties are paying an extra £950.
Citizens Advice wants the government to bring regulation of the private rental sector in line with social housing by following the lead set by ‘Awaab’s Law’ - changes that will place strict, legally binding timelines on social landlords to deal with serious issues such as damp and mould.
Fancy a three-day weekend?
This cheerful photograph is a bit on the nose when talking about a four-day working week - but you get the idea. Reduced hours certainly allowed the team at Tyler Grange (pictured) to spend more time on their hobbies.
The company was among dozens that took part in a six-month trial to see if reduced working hours made a difference. And six companies in Greater Manchester - Adzooma, AKA Case Management, Everledger, Outcomes First Group, Tyler Grange and Evolution Money - have all decided to stick with the new working week.
A report published by the think tank Autonomy and academics at the University of Cambridge and Boston College found the vast majority of companies that took part in the trial were satisfied business performance and productivity was maintained and stress and burnout significantly declined. Researchers also found benefits to work-life balance, mental and physical health and staff retention levels.
Tyler Grange managing director Simon Ursell says he has already been approached by other businesses to share advice and learnings on the four-day week.
"The UK has an unhealthy culture where it is seen as a badge of honour to work all the time, yet our productivity levels are low and younger talent – as well as the brilliant talent that we want to attract at all levels of our business - doesn’t want to be defined by a burnout life,” he says.
"We’ve always said that the four-day week isn’t for everyone, but it’s possible for many more sectors and companies – it simply requires re-thinking entrenched norms and changing workplace cultures."
‘Things are already not working’
Objectors describe a recently-approved scheme in Didsbury as 'overdevelopment' and worry it will block sunlight reaching their beloved communal green space.
Plans for an eight-storey block of flats at the former Withington Hospital site have now been given the green light - despite dozens of objections. Residents of the new build Didsbury Point estate behind it are so worried about the impact it will have on their neighbourhood, that some have even considered moving out, as Joseph Timan reports.
And they fear the lack of parking in the plans will exacerbate existing issues. Drop-off and pick-up time at the new Didsbury High School which neighbours the site is 'absolutely nuts', according to the objectors, and they worry it will get worse when a sixth form opens on the site in September. They say the roads are already 'really dangerous' for children walking to school and argue that allowing a development with 'insufficient' parking will make it worse.
The 76 apartments due to be built will all be 'affordable' and are an important part of Manchester Council's plans for housing across the city. And it’s for this reason neighbours feel their concerns have been overlooked.
"If it wasn't affordable, they wouldn't have approved it,” says Chantelle Carroll, who lives in Georgia Avenue. She describes the battle between Labour and the Lib Dems over this development as 'political ping pong'.
"There are existing infrastructure issues," adds Jen Beaver who has lived in Clearwater Drive for seven years. "Things are already not working."
You can read more about the row rumbling on in Didsbury here.
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Weather etc
Wednesday: Heavy rain changing to cloudy by late morning. 8C.
Road closures: A627 Dowson Road Northbound closed due to water main work from Thornley Street to B6468 Market Street until March 3.
Trivia question: Manchester is further north than Liverpool - true or false?
Manchester headlines
New appeal: Police have issued a fresh appeal to find Constance Marten and Mark Gordon - despite receiving 350 calls with tips. The couple were travelling in a car which was found on fire on the hard-shoulder of the M61. The mum, who is from a wealthy land-owning family with links to the Royal Family, disappeared with her newborn baby boy and sex offender partner, Gordon, on January 5. The pair abandoned their burning vehicle after it broke down near junction 4 of the motorway at Farnworth in Bolton. More here.
Domestic abusers: Greater Manchester Police will take part in a pilot scheme aimed at 'cracking down' on domestic abusers by introducing new, tougher measures. They are one of three forces nationwide to participate in the trial, which will see courts able to impose requirements such as attendance to perpetrator behaviour change programmes, alongside electronic monitoring and making it mandatory for offenders to notify the police of name and address changes.
Theatre: Bosses have revealed how a new £24.5m theatre to replace Oldham’s iconic Coliseum could look as the historic venue prepares to close next month. At a cabinet meeting on Monday, councillors are set to ‘recommit’ to the development of a new theatre in the borough, and to formally accept £1.845m of Arts Council England funding to provide cultural activity for the next three years. It comes a week after the Coliseum Theatre said it would close its doors permanently at the end of March after being dropped from the Arts Council funding portfolio. Council chiefs want to open a new ‘more modern’ theatre – which would be smaller than the 585-seat Coliseum – at 84 Union Street, in the Old Post Office and former Quaker Meeting House. More here.
- Investors: Co-op Live - the country's largest indoor arena - will open its doors near the Etihad Stadium in December. Now, the full list of investors for the £365m project has been revealed. Grammy and BRIT award-winning singer Harry Styles was announced as an investor for the project back in October 2020. But as Business Live reports, newly-filed documents with Companies House give the full details on who is behind the development. The arena is a joint venture between City Football Group - the holding group which manages football clubs including Manchester City, under the majority ownership of Sheikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group - and Oak View Group (OVG). Each party has 7,865 shares in Co-op Live's holding company. The next largest shareholder is Harry Styles' Erekine Records, whose only other director is Emma Spring.
Worth a read
With Manchester City facing a crisis, there is plenty at stake. The club is facing more than 100 charges of allegedly breaching financial rules and, if found guilty, the Premier League has the power to impose potentially huge sanctions, including fines, point deductions, suspension, relegation or even expulsion from the competition.
But, as Damon Wilkinson reports, City's success on the pitch has been closely tied with developments off it. “Owners the Abu Dhabi United Group have ploughed hundreds of millions of pounds into east Manchester, helping to transform what was once one of the most deprived area in Western Europe,” he writes.
“Any potential punishment is a long way off yet, but could a suspension or expulsion raise the prospect of the owners losing interest or reducing their investment? And what would relegation, the loss of the big European mid-week games, and the drop in attendances that would almost surely follow mean for local businesses that rely on match-day trade?"
Damon has been speaking to councillors, locals and traders about what City has meant to East Manchester and what the future might hold.
Among them is Kaleem Ahmed, who has run Sweet City in Beswick for 30 years, says the area has been transformed from a 'a crime-ridden, forgotten part of Manchester' to a 'place people want to live'.
"CTID (City till I die), that's what they say isn't it?' he says. "I think the owners are committed. I don't think they'd pull out, whatever happens. They have brought so much joy to City fans.
"Just to be in this position, 20 years ago City fans would have said you were dreaming. It's great.”
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: True
