News round up 12 – 16 September
Article published: Monday, September 19th 2011
Our editors’ pick of the last week’s local stories. Campaigners and local MPs join forces to demand an investigation into the policing of an anti-racist demonstration in Bolton, property developers line up to get their share of the Co-op’s new investments in the city centre and Greater Manchester Police embroil themselves in yet more taser controversy…
Monday
Private sector output declines in North West
The overall economic output from private companies in the North West fell in August for the first time in 28 months, according to the North West Business Activity Index carried out by the business analyst firm Markit.
Most of the decline was due to a contracting manufacturing sector, while the data also shows employment rates falling at their fastest rates for 25 months, faster than the UK average. Not great news, particularly when it’s the private sector who are meant to offset all the public sector job cuts…
Tuesday
Vickers report encourages Co-op expansion
Recommendations in Sir John Vickers’ Independent Review of Banking could encourage the Co-operative group to press ahead in its plans to purchase 632 branches from Lloyds TSB, valued at 4.6 per cent of the UK’s current account market.
The review endorsed proposals that the branch sell-off, required under EU regulations governing state aid to financial institutions to prevent nationalisation “unfair competition”, should lead to the establishment of a “strong challenger bank” worth between 6 and 12 per cent of the market in UK current accounts. Lloyds received over £17 billion in the September 2008 ‘bank bailouts’, and 41 per cent of the company is owned by the taxpayer.
If the deal goes ahead the Co-op would possess roughly 1,000 high street branches, pushing it over the 6 per cent line. Two other bidders, the AIM shell company NBNK and businessman Hugh Osmond’s Sun Capital, are also in the running.
More North West employers looking to shed jobs than hire workers
More employers in the North West expect to either sack workers or freeze hiring levels than recruit staff over the next three months, according to the latest report from recruitment specialists Manpower.
Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey found that while 6 per cent of employers in the region expected to hire more workers during the final quarter of 2011 8 per cent expected to shed staff, leading to a 2 per cent net fall in hiring intentions overall. The report reflects previous findings, with a net 2 per cent decrease in the North West reported over the summer in addition to a 5 per cent fall from this time last year. When figures are adjusted for seasonal variations, the survey found that employers expected to lose more staff than they hired over the next three months in the North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while seasonally adjusted hiring intentions in London were frozen at 0.
Next job losses were forecast nationally in the construction and hotel and retail sectors, while the strongest areas of overall job growth were anticipated in utilities, finance and business services, mining and transport and communication.
Salford wiped off political map in boundary change upset
Every slightly bewildered undergraduate who thinks Salford is part of Manchester won’t be incorrect by 2015 if the government gets its way. Proposals revealed last week intend to strip fifty seats from the House of Commons, and if the plans are accepted then Salford will soon no longer possess a constituency of its own, amalgamated instead as part of the reshaped Manchester Central constituency.
Funnily enough, included in the extended Manchester constituency will be Salford Quays, site of the Media City development that saw the BBC “redevelop” the Irwell by littering it with yuppie flats and the shiniest, ugliest building up North. Manchester and Salford battled hard a decade ago to be the city of the BBC’s relocation, and in a sense it looks like Manchester had the last laugh by swallowing up the site without the headache of developing it.
The changes compliment what seems to be a longer term project of amalgamating the two cities, with both joining together to form a “Regional Centre” by 2030 in a deal that the Salford Star thinks looks suspiciously beneficial for Manchester. Remarkably, the University of Salford has even seen fit to rename itself the University of Salford, Manchester.
In response some Salfordians, concerned at where a “Manchester Central” MP’s loyalties would lie, have already banded together to save the city from disenfranchisement. Since it’d mean there’s no risk of Hazel Blears ever crossing the Irwell, we’re behind them 100 per cent.
Wednesday
New homes ‘shameful shoe boxes’ say architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) published research this week demonstrating that the average new three-person home is eight per cent smaller than the basic minimum recommended size. The North West came out with second smallest homes, just in front of Yorkshire and the Humber.
RIBA said: “This squeeze on the average home is depriving thousands of families the adequate space for children to do homework, adults to work from home, guests to stay and for members of the household to relax together.”
Harry Rich, RIBA chief executive, said: “Our homes should be places that enhance our lives and well-being. However, as our new research confirms, thousands of cramped houses – shameful shoe box homes – are being churned out all over the country, depriving households of the space they need to live comfortably and cohesively.”
More jobs misery as cuts kick in
The latest labour market statistics from the Office for National Statistics came out this week for the second quarter of 2011. They’re the first since the government’s austerity measures really came into force, and they’re pretty damn awful.
In short, unemployment rose by 80,000 to 2.51m. It was the largest rise since August 2009 when the country was still deep in recession. The number of unemployed women is now at its highest level since 1988. One in five young people aged 16-24 is out of work. There are meanwhile 5.5 unemployed people to every job advertised. Real wages fell by 2.4 per cent.
A review of the figures by the Centre for Cities left scarce scope for optimism. 41,400 public sector jobs in the North West were destroyed over the last twelve months, a drop of 4.3 per cent, with the private sector rustling up a mere 3,400 new positions – a rise of 0.1 per cent on last year.
FBU moves closer to industrial action
In a week when Trade Union Congress leaders have been talking up industrial action against the government’s austerity measures and attacks on the public sector, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) moved one step closer to balloting its own 43,000 members.
The FBU has rejected proposals for raising pension contributions by between 3.2 and 6 per cent. Fire crews would pay more than any other public sector workers into their scheme, contributing between 14.2 and 17 per cent up from 11 per cent.
FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack said: “These plans are a crude smash and grab raid on firefighter pension rights to help pay for the budget deficit. It is nothing to do with long-term sustainability or affordability.
“The huge rise in contributions will cost our emergency fire crews between £2,000 and £7,500 by 2014. It’s daylight robbery to demand these sums.
“We’re facing an exodus from the main scheme with as many as one in four firefighters saying they will leave it. That will cost the taxpayer an extra £210 million, no savings at all, and undermine the financial base of the scheme.
“Nearly half of all fire crews say they will consider leaving the fire service if these changes are forced through. That would impact on the operational effectiveness of the fire service at all levels.
“It is daft to expect people of 60 and beyond to work as an operational firefighter. Even the very fittest will struggle to do that, it will not work in the real world.”
Demonstrators launch ‘right to protest’ campaign
Anti-fascist campaigners and MPs are calling for an investigation into the controversial policing of a demonstration against the English Defence League in Bolton last year. The ‘Justice for Bolton’ group formed after several protestors were injured and arrested on charges that were later dropped, announced the serving of civil actions against Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the intention to hold a “people’s enquiry” into the policing of political protest.
Supported by former minister Peter Hain and Bolton MPs Julie Hilling, Yasmin Qureshi and David Crausby, the campaign is supporting the call for an enquiry into the use of public order tactics such as “kettling, inappropriate stop and search laws and the threat and execution of violence by police officers during that public protest and all public protests over the last three years.”
The group is also urging GMP and the Independent Police Complaints Commission to “conduct full and transparent investigations” into the events around the arrest of Alan Clough”, injured during the protest, and into what the group alleges were “systemic failings on the part of GMP” as regards “the policing of the demonstration as a whole”.
A Justice for Bolton spokesperson said: “It is plain that the policing of the demonstration on 20 March 2010 was blighted not only by the misconduct of individual ‘rogue’ officers but by organisational failings on the part of GMP. Such failings must be addressed at an organisational level and the lessons learned from this – and other -protests so that the police change the way they police protests.”
Thursday
Carbon emissions fall
Manchester Friends of the Earth report that the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere fell across Greater Manchester between 2005 and 2009, according to the latest statistics released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Greater Manchester saw a reduction of 14.2 per cent, with 8.6 per cent drop between 2008 and 2009 – the onset of the economic crisis. In Manchester the 2008-2009 fall was 11.6 per cent, while in 2005-2009 it was 12 per cent. Maybe the goal of 41 per cent by 2020 will happen after all, if the economy remains broken for the rest of the decade…
Friday
Four in running for NOMA development
Local commercial property giant Bruntwood have apparently made the shortlist as a partner in the Co-operative Group’s £1bn ‘NOMA’ city centre development. Bruntwood, who own about one quarter of the commercial property in Manchester, are said to be on a list with three others: BAM Properties, Stanhope and Jamie Ritblat’s property company Delancey, who are developing the Olympic Village in London.
A NOMA spokesperson told TheBusinessDesk.com: “The call for expressions of interest triggered a high level of interest. Shared values, track record and ability to deliver are what we have been looking for.”
The 20 acre mega-scheme centred on an enormous new HQ building, is set to take 15 years to complete. It will supposedly create up to 15,000 jobs, though such figures are hard to verify and often exaggerated. Manchester City Council has committed £20m of its own money into the plans, despite the Co-op’s record profits in recent years. They were apparently ready to up sticks out of Manchester a few years ago though, which may be one reason for such generosity…
Homelessness rises 17 per cent over 12 months
More bad news on homelessness reports Inside Housing. There was an overall rise of 17 per cent in homeless families between April 2010 and April 2011, according to research carried out by Heriot-Watt and York universities.
The paper, commissioned by homelessness charity Crisis, predicts that this is the tip of the iceberg. It says the government’s benefit reforms and economic downturn seem “certain to increase all forms of homelessness” and warns “the worst is yet to come”.
The research also shows the number of people becoming homeless after their private tenancy ended rose 46 per cent during the period. This number jumped 22 per cent between the first and second quarters of 2011, when Local Housing Allowance caps were introduced – at between £250 and £400 a week, depending on property size, and with five-bedroom rate removed.
Leslie Morphy, chief executive of Crisis, warned: “Homelessness is rising and we fear cuts to housing benefit and housing budgets, alongside the Welfare Reform Bill and Localism Bill, will cause it to increase yet further.”
GMP in more taser controversy
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have tasered a 16-year-old schoolboy at his home in Wythenshawe after he locked his mum out of the house and she called 999. According to the boy, who was taking his GCSEs at the time, he came out with his hands up ready to negotiate with his mother when the police jumped on him, tasered him and arrested him on “suspicion of assaulting two police officers”.
He now says he’s been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks ever since. And no, they didn’t bring any charges against him.
His mother told Manchester Evening News: “I think it’s disgusting. He’s not a bad lad – he’s never been in trouble before. I want an apology.”
The incident is being investigated by the force’s Professional Standards Branch and has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (who both have great records). The family, rather sensibly, is now considering whether to take legal action against GMP.
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