An anti-cuts demonstration in January 2011. Photograph: Roxallison

The report’s authors, Professor Colin Talbot and Doctor Carole Talbot of the Manchester Business School, expect unemployment across the area to “easily go above 100,000 by the end of next year with the effects of public sector job losses alone”, calculating a “reasonably conservative estimate” of 15,000 – 16,000 positions under threat.

Lost council services such as Sure Starts, libraries and adult social care make up “only a relatively small part of the overall picture” according to the study, although the authors warn their figure of £234 million in cuts to local government “is almost certainly an underestimate”. A rough figure of an 8 per cent reduction in spending for all other services aside from health and education, which have been ‘relatively’ protected by the Treasury, heaps an additional £762 million onto the total taken from the area.

Although the authors admit this is a somewhat “crude” calculation, they argue it errs on the side of caution considering some areas of spending such as economic regeneration have been wiped out by as much as 80 per cent. While Greater Manchester is less reliant on public sector employment than comparable cities such as Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham, 23.4 per cent of the county’s workforce is still employed in that sector and in 2008/09, prior to the cuts, total public spending in the city region amounted to £22 billion, or 44 per cent of the region’s economy.

Tipping point?

To fill the gap left by David Cameron’s axe, the government hopes private sector investment will expand and create jobs once the state is “rolled back”. In response the study warns that as of yet there is “no sign of this happening”. The public sector cuts come on top of what the authors term a “substantial” private sector recession, with 34,100 jobs and £1.5 billion in value already lost from Greater Manchester between 2008 and 2010.

The report notes how even prior to the recession Manchester suffered from a growth in “under employment”, defined as “people working part-time who wanted full-time work and people who were clearly over-qualified for their jobs”. Additional research by local think tank the Commission for the New Economy has found this issue to have worsened since the recession, with employers exploiting a “flexible labour market” to squeeze wages and reduce hours.

On the upside, this has kept unemployment lower so far than in past recessions such as the 1980s or 1930s. However, the Commission noted that any upturn would result in a “jobless recovery” as firms make greater use of the staff they retained, while continuing economic stagnation – which appears likely – risks a “tipping point” of “pronounced” increases in redundancies if firms decide they can no longer afford to maintain their workforce.

Mixed resilience

As previously reported in MULE real incomes for those in work have been slashed as wages failed to keep pace with inflation, and the report expects further benefit cuts to the unemployed and people on low incomes to kick-in over the latter half of the current Parliament. The worst of the crunch in living standards as purses and wallets empty and businesses feel the knock-on effects is still to come, as “the full impact of these cuts will not yet have been felt across the Greater Manchester economy” only nine months in to austerity now planned to continue up until 2017.

On the plus side the report argues that Manchester and its surrounding area is faring “slightly better” on average than the rest of the UK, with a “fairly diversified local economy” compared to the factories and manufacturing of the 1970s. Looking beyond the bare statistics to how different parts of the region are coping reveals a grimmer picture however. Out of the 11 local authorities in the Manchester city region only three – the wealthier suburbs of Trafford, Stockport and Warrington – are in the top half of rankings of “resilience” against the impact of cuts and economic downturn as calculated by the BBC’s Newsnight.

Of the other eight authorities Bury, Manchester and Salford are in the bottom half of “resilient” areas with the remaining five councils in the former mill towns of Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside, Wigan and Bolton in Northern Greater Manchester in the bottom quarter of the country for resilience. The ultimate impact of the various remaining or repackaged schemes for blunting the downturn in these areas remains to be seen, although interesting local responses include Manchester City Council’s decision to increase its level of purchasing spend from £87 million to £154 million in the most deprived nearby neighbourhoods.

How more standard regeneration wheezes such as Salford’s MediaCityUK are to benefit the majority of the city’s residents appears less clear, with figures first reported in the Guardian revealing that just 154 of the 529 jobs made available through the site’s “jobs bank” going to applicants from either Manchester or Salford. Of those, only 24 were from Salford according to the Manchester Evening News. The sad fact that 26,400 young people in Greater Manchester before Christmas were on the dole gives some indication as to the scale of the hole the city is in.

Richard Goulding

Manjeet Kaur working on her case with her lawyer Gary McIndoe of Latitude Law, Manchester

Kaur has been granted permission for a judicial review of her case at the High Court in Manchester after the UK Border Agency (UKBA) refused to grant her an “in country” appeal following the rejection of her asylum claim.

Originally from Afghanistan, Kaur says she left her home in India after being beaten and threatened with rape and murder by men looking for her husband, human rights activist and journalist Amitt Bhatt, who disappeared in February this year after investigating suspected human rights abuses against the Kashmiri Pandit ethnic minority.

If the judicial review is turned down there is a risk that Kaur, a wheelchair user will be sent back to India. Whereas Kaur has relatives in the UK who can support her she has no family in India following the disappearance of her husband, and supporters say her disability will greatly restrict her ability to both work and travel and protect herself against future attacks.

Kaur labelled travel for a wheelchair users in India a “nightmare”, saying most roads and paths have “high bumps, broken surfaces and steps not feasible for a wheelchair user”, adding how it was in “no way possible to get from point A to B in a manual wheelchair without any help.”

Kaur’s solicitor Gary McIndoe of Latitude Law said: “Her evidence of her husband Amitt’s politically motivated disappearance, and the physical harm she has suffered, make this a clearly arguable case.”

The campaign ‘Keep Manjeet safe in the UK’ has been organised by asylum seeker charity RAPAR and has the support of community and disability rights activists and trade unionists – who have also contributed towards the financial backing for Kaur to pursue the case.

In May of this year, Kaur faced eviction from her home in Whalley Range when the UKBA terminated her housing support as a result of the rejection of her claim for asylum. The decision to evict a disabled asylum seeker attracted public attention when protesters rallied to her aid, winning the support of Stretford Labour MP Kate Green.

The protest, organised by RAPAR and the Disability Action Network, successfully resulted in Kaur being allowed to remain at her home in Whalley Range. This latest campaign, fighting for her right to appeal the decision of asylum in the UK, similarly has a broad group of supporters.

Dr Rhetta Moran, of RAPAR, said: “The level of support Manjeet has attracted from all sections of the community is a testimony to the strength of her case and to the way she has used her skills to work with people in her community and with other people seeking asylum.”

The UKBA were contacted but declined to comment.

Sam Cordon

The vigil will be held outside Manchester Civil Justice Centre, 1 Bridge Street West  (corner of Gartside Street), Manchester at 10am Monday 19 December

For further information of the ‘Keep Manjeet safe in the UK’ campaign visit RAPAR’s website 

Thursday’s night shift at the Trafford site were the first in Manchester to walk out as part of an unprecedented national one day strike of over 2,000 workers at twelve sites. “I have worked here for 37 years and we have never had a strike before” explained Sheena Mitchel, one of the senior trade union stewards from Unite the Union speaking at the picket line in Trafford Park.

Nevertheless, Mitchel noted support for the action: “There are 250 people working here, but only one worker and one of the casual staff have gone in tonight. We have over twenty five on the picket line.” Strikers in Manchester picketed for 14 hours and Unilever sites across the country were hit by walkouts halting the production of the global giant’s leading brands including Marmite, Pot Noodle and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

The dispute was spurred by Unilever’s intention to close its workers’ final salary pension scheme, which unions say will slice 40 per cent from retiring members’ incomes and cost thousands of pounds to people who had been with the company for decades.

High profits, squeezed pensions

In a statement to the press, Unilever argued final salary pensions were “a broken model” which was “no longer appropriate”, saying “it is our responsibility to protect the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of our UK business.” The company remains awash with cash however, having just increased full year profits by 18 per cent to £5.2 billion. Chief Executive Paul Polman even recently boasted to the BBC that “growth is the highest we’ve seen in 30 years. It’s coming from across the world.”

Trade unions Unite, USDAW and GMB participated and more industrial action is expected in the New Year. The walkouts came just weeks after public sector workers also defending their pensions took part in the largest strikes in decades, and car manufacturers BMW also look set to face stoppages in upcoming months unless the company stops plans to close its pension scheme to new starters and ends the use legal loop-holes to deny agency staff equal pay.

The Manchester picket lines received support from health and council workers. Caroline Ridgeway, a local joint branch secretary for the public sector trade union Unison, said “we were well received on the picket line. What they are fighting for is the same as what we are fighting for – our pensions.”

Unison’s national executive declared support for the Unilever strikes last week and Unite have declared that, where possible, future strikes will be co-ordinated to ensure public and private sector workers take action on the same day.

Mark Krantz

In a grim sign of a hardening labour market the number of long-term unemployed passed 32,000, an increase of 27.6 per cent throughout the year. The total number of people on JSA in October 2011 was over 82,000, compared to just 24,196 vacancies in Greater Manchester according to the report – more than three applicants for every position.

Women were particularly hard hit, with female JSA claimants rising by 29.7 per cent compared to an increase in male claimants of 7.2 per cent between October 2010 and October 2011. Despite government efforts to move large numbers of groups such as the disabled off other benefits including incapacity benefit and onto the cheaper JSA rate the total number of benefit claimants in Greater Manchester remained stable at 316,000, decreasing by just 0.8 per cent over the past year.

Youth unemployment in the city region was higher on average than the rest of the country, with a quarter of all job seeking youths on the dole for more than six months. People aged 16 – 24 made up two thirds of the extra 7,000 JSA claimants since January.

The report argued the government’s new £1 billion Youth Contract programme set to come into force in April and seen by many as a U-turn following the scrapping of the Future Jobs Fund made for “welcome reading”, although it warned that forecasts for worsening unemployment as the economy plummets meant 2012 would be “just as challenging as 2011”.

Stagnant markets

Vacant office space. Photograph: Phil Simpson

While retail rents were “subdued” those for offices and industry remained “fairly steady”, perhaps offering slight relief to many in the city’s business establishment who are hoping to make some cash from commercial property markets. Flights at Manchester airport and hotel occupancy rates even increased from last year, with the number of visitors staying overnight the highest since reporting began in 2000.

The people of Manchester did not seem to reap the benefits, however. As revealed last week in MULE incomes for those in work fell, with slight average wage increases for full time employees who live and work in the city region more than wiped out by over 5 per cent inflation. Only in Trafford did residents earn higher than the national average, with Greater Manchester as a whole earning 8.6 per cent less than the country as a whole.

More misery was confirmed on the housing front, with the number of new homes built standing at 77 per cent less than the peak of just under 14,000 in 2007/08 – one of only two years in the last ten in which more than the needed 10,000 homes per year to keep up with local demand were built. A frozen housing market since the 2007 crash and house prices still stuck well above their pre-bubble figure suggest prices have a long way yet to fall – not quite an enticing prospect for property developers with a need to turn a profit.

Despite the gloom the press statement for this report tried to end on a positive note, hailing the rather small regional growth fund and cash for various broadband and transport projects as some “good news” for the area. Yet there is reason to be sceptical that handouts for business will do much good for any recovery while the wages of those ‘fortunate’ enough to work for them and buy their products remain shredded and the government’s ongoing cuts to public spending are extended to 2017 and deepened by £15 billion. As even the report’s authors admitted, the expectation all round is that things will get much worse before they get any better.

Richard Goulding

How did you get into stand-up comedy in the first place?

I started by hosting my own small club north London, introducing people who were later to become household names like Ben Elton, Jo Brand and Eddie Izzard. Decided I enjoyed the performing as much as the organising and wrote a club act of my own. It wasn’t very good!

In what way was your material influenced by your experiences in the West Bank?

By the time I visited Israel and the West Bank I’d moved on from club comedy to doing solo shows. I was much more successful in the solo arena and discovered that most of my best comedy was connected to being Jewish. I’m immensely proud of that heritage, but I’ve always had deep seated political interests too. Hence my interest in the Middle East conflict and I wanted to express my reaction to express my feelings to Israel’s diabolical behaviour in the region in the best way I could, through being funny.

Tell us a little about the new show you’re doing here, what should people expect and what you hope people will take away from it?

In Manchester I’ll be performing an adaptation of the show I performed in Edinburgh 2011. Its a compilation of my favourite Jewish material that I’ve come up with over the years including not just issue stuff like Israel and anti-Semitism, but personal stuff too on subjects like family and relationships. What I do is use the traditional flavour of great Jewish humour to talk about anything that concerns me and I think will interest whoever comes along to see me. Everyone is welcome and everyone will get it.

Obviously bits of your comedy cover some very sensitive issues, what sort of reactions have you had from it during your career, positive and negative?

Some Jewish people say they don’t like my comedy because they find it too critical of Israel.  But it’s difficult to laugh at jokes when your hands are over your ears. Others love it. They sidle up to you afterwards and quietly tell you in hushed tones that its exactly what they think, but they can’t speak out because they’re afraid of ‘upsetting the community’.

You did a show in the House of Commons once, how did that come about?

I was invited by an MP who’d been to Gaza and seen the carnage on the ground to bring the show in. It was an opportunity for his fellow Parliamentarians to see that not all Jewish people slavishly follow the propaganda they’re fed by their own community’s establishment.

What role do you think stand-up comedy can play in such huge and polarising issues as the Israel-Palestine conflict, and why do you think it’s effective?

People laugh when they hear true things, and the best stand-up comedy deals in truth and little else. Its as simple as that. I understand the people who dislike my comedy, because when I was young I used to think exactly the same as them, but as I got older I got a bit naughty, and started to think for myself.

Ivor Dembina’s show, Stand-Up Jewish Comedy, is on at Apotheca Restaurant and Cocktail Bar in the Northern Quarter on Sunday 30 October. There will be two performances, one starting at 5pm and the other at 8.15pm. Tickets are £7 and can be purchased through the Manchester Comedy Festival website.

Upper space as a whole consists of academics, activists and community organisers. Their projects and artistic interventions focus on “promoting alternative ideas about public space” and fighting for “social and environmental justice.”  As of 2011 they have turned this focus upon the governments’ “devastating public spending cuts”, working with young homeless people from the city of Manchester.  Upper Space feels that it is unacceptable for a government to bail out those responsible for the economic crisis whilst making life harder and harder for everyone else. The inspiration for their new project, ‘Home’, are the disturbing social housing and housing benefit fund cuts and their effects on Britain’s most vulnerable.

The scale of work for this project is impressive, from screen-prints for sale in support for Upper Spaces’ partner charity the Limes Hostel for the Homeless, to providing banners for people to display at anti-cuts marches. The main body and power of this project however comes in the form of street art and the exhibits the artists have placed on our streets.

Public spaces are often a battlefield for our attentions and as is the nature of this art, the galleries that host it are the streets themselves. When I first saw the bird homes attached to lampposts and road signs around the city I didn’t feel the immediate buzz I had come to expect from street art. It took me a little while to realize what I was looking at before the beauty of them struck me and it became apparent how they conveyed their message. The decorated birdhouses, of which the most powerful had one large eye painted on the front, had an eerie grip on the streets.

As I looked at them I became conscious of the eyes becoming more and more visible in their settings before they actually seemed to become the street’s own. It is then when I noticed the emotions buried within them: some of fear, some of anger and some of shock. The empathy the eye induced was felt for the street itself.  The bird homes beckon you to come and look inside them, where the artists have contained more explicit messages about these emotions and the problems of homelessness in Manchester.

This art is incredibly beautiful as well as clever, avoiding being obvious or clichéd. Most notably, however, it is powerfully emotive.  Having seen this art that can compete for our attentions on the street, it is difficult for me to disagree with the artists that the question is not “can we change things” but “how far can we go?”

Edward Collins

The Roby in Longsight

Part of a national scheme of 20,000 people, the time bank works through participants swapping their knowledge with others on any topic of their choice such as gardening, cooking or arts and crafts. Each hour spent sharing skills earns one ‘time credit’ to spend an hour of their choice learning a new subject taught through the bank whenever they need.

Roby worker David Adams said the project aids people with mental or physical health troubles to regain confidence based on sharing their strengths. “Instead of treating people as if they were ill we help others to realise what assets they have instead of treating them as a set of needs,” he said, arguing that the “bank” can also provide a way for people experiencing  other issues such as unemployment to retain their independence and help others in their community.

The scheme will begin with a launch event at the 25-year old health centre at 2pm Thursday 27  October. A spokesperson for The Roby said all are welcome to attend and “try smoothies, sample some food, try an arts and crafts class or bring some of their own skills to share.”

Richard Goulding

You can find The Roby at 307 Dickenson Road, Longsight Manchester, M13 0NG. If you wish to help out or get involved ring 0161 257 2653 or email info@theroby.org.uk

Demonstrators waved banners stating “don’t take our independence” and “don’t push us into poverty” in protest against far-reaching changes to the benefits system. Campaigners say the reforms will leave disabled people and their families worse off by £9 billion over the next four years.

Over 5,000 people attended simultaneous protests called for by the Disability Benefits Consortium and the UK Disabled People’s Council in 12 cities across the UK. Speaking at the Manchester demonstration, disability rights activist and Broken of Britain founder Kaliya Franklin said “these so-called reforms hit our ability to live independently in society. We will not sit quietly by.”

Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Hayley Cropper in the long-running soap, also addressed the rally. Speaking to MULE, she explained how “it seems to me that this government is intent, as it always has been, on looking at the people who are the most vulnerable in our society, the people at the bottom of the pile.”

She added, “I think that it’s a very clever strategy to stop people looking at the people at the top of the pile who are running the country, the billionaires, the bankers, the offshore tax accounts, the people who are the real benefit scroungers in this land.” Hesmondhalgh, who earlier that morning had attended the funeral of veteran Coronation Street actress Betty Driver, said “I just wanted to lend my support and solidarity. I’ve been at Betty’s funeral today and I’ve come from there and I’ve come here with a bit of Betty’s spirit.”

The protests follow on from earlier demonstrations held in May, and come as the House of Lords debates the government’s Welfare Reform Bill. Under the provisions of the Bill a wide variety of schemes including Job Seeker’s Allowance, disability support transfers such as Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and tax credits will be combined into a single ‘Universal Credit’ for people either out of work or on low incomes.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) claims the current system reduces incentives for unemployed claimants to enter the workforce through leaving some individuals either slightly or no better off if they accept paid work, and intend to impose tougher “sanctions” for people who do not find work. Announcing the Bill in February, DWP Minister Iain Duncan Smith said “our reforms will end the absurdity of a system where people too often get rewarded for doing the wrong thing, and those who strive to do the best by their families get penalised.”

Incomes for many families in work remain low and few jobs are available however, with Trades Union Congress research finding five unemployed people for each job vacancy. Calculations by the Institute for Fiscal Studies predict “a decade of rising poverty” as new tax and benefit changes such as the switching of means-tested benefits from the higher Retail Price Index to the lower Consumer Price Index will “more than offset the impact on poverty of Universal Credit.”

Moreover, charities and disability rights activists dispute the assertion that people with disabilities are reluctant to work. A survey conducted by the Disability Benefits Consortium found that while 61 per cent of people with disabilities were not in employment, only 4 per cent of that figure said they did not want to work. Of those in employment only 2.5 per cent said they would be financially worse off if they worked more hours, while only one in ten of those not in work said they would have less money if they were employed.

In contrast, one in five people with disabilities in employment said “their impairment or health condition meant they could not work more hours”, with nearly a third of those not in employment stating that their condition means “they cannot work at all”. Furthermore, disabled people are twice as likely to have no qualifications as the rest of the population according to the Labour Force Survey and a study by Personnel Today found that 92 per cent of employers believed “there was still discrimination against disabled people in employment and recruitment.”

Other provisions in the Bill include the withdrawal of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from residents in publically funded care homes, used to fund accessible transport such as specialised wheelchairs or taxis. DLA, intended to supplement the extra living costs of disability, is itself to be cut by 20 per cent and replaced by a new ‘Personal Independence Payment’. Many details of the new scheme including help to carers remain unclear, and in a statement to Parliament Carers UK warned that the 6.4 million carers in the UK, the majority of which are women, “could be particularly hard hit by the proposed reductions in spending.”

Many at the rally also spoke out against the process used to determine access to Employment Support Allowance (ESA), a scheme introduced under the last Labour government to replace Incapacity Benefit. Overseen by the multinational private company Atos, the work capability assessment scheme has come under sustained criticism for providing inaccurate judgements of disability. According to the most recent available figures dating back to August 2009 40 per cent of claimants appealed assessment decisions with a 40 per cent success rate, with the Scottish Citizens Advice Bureax achieving a successful appeal rate as high as 70 per cent for clients they represented.

‘Contribution based’ ESA calculated on National Insurance payments for those on ESA who are expected to seek work is also to be time limited to one year. The move prompted disquiet from the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, which noted how claimants “may find it much harder to move into employment even though they may have done everything required of them to find work.”

At the end of the time period any who have not been able to secure employment will be moved onto a means-tested system, which the Disability Benefits Consortium criticised as damaging the independence of families, pointing out how if a claimant has “a partner who works, meaning they don’t qualify for income-related ESA, they may be better off financially if their partner stops working so they qualify for benefits.”

Mencap campaigns volunteer Thomas Butler, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, made a speech in which he warned of how the impact of cuts and privatisations would undermine the level of independence won by disability campaigners. “We need to fight this gross conception that we want to sit around all day” he said, adding that “we need to have equality as well as no discrimination.”

Local MPs Tony Lloyd and Paul Goggins also spoke at the rally. Goggins criticised plans to close the publically funded Remploy printing plant in his Wythenshawe constituency, set up to provide employment opportunities to disabled people, while Lloyd told demonstrators that the claim that people on disability benefits were “scroungers” was “not just a myth but a downright political lie to do down not just you but anyone who uses the welfare state.”

Richard Goulding

The OK café project squats empty buildings to use as temporary social centres. For the next three weeks, the café will be open at a former old people’s home on Wilmslow Road, a large building in the student area of Fallowfield. Ordinarily fading into the background, the building now catches the eye with its hoards of bicycles locked up outside and banners draped from the windows.

As with previous cafés, the space is being used to create a community centre where people can cook, eat, create and discuss together. The workshops range from training in direct action to learning how to cook, jewellery and craft making, circus acrobatics and even language classes.

Rosie Ford, a volunteer, explained: “We want this to be a space where nobody feels marginalised, it’s open to everyone to get involved, whether that be coming along to a workshop or putting one on yourself.”

Using empty buildings in this way however may well be in jeopardy due to new proposals to criminalise squatting. As such, Rosie argues that the creation of this space takes on greater significance in an age of austerity and Conservative political reform. She explained: “The café physically stages a protest against government plans to criminalise squatting, the effects of which ripple out much further than just outlawing projects like the OK Café. The proposed legislation will impact the most vulnerable in our society – the homeless. Squatting shouldn’t be the criminal issue they’re making it into- it’s a housing and welfare issue.”

Crisis, the homelessness charity stated this year that around 39 per cent of all homeless people have used squatting at some point to stay off the streets. “If they push these measures through then people already in bad situations will find themselves branded as criminals too,” added Rosie.

If passed, the proposed new laws could also have implications for political expression.  The NUS has recently raised concerns about how the new trespass legislation could affect occupations as form of protest. Recent outrage at the cuts to public services saw a wave of occupations last year, including at the University of Manchester. Under the proposed legislation on trespassing, these acts of protest could lead to the criminalisation and arrest of protesters.

Katie Bordeaux

The OK Cafe will run for approximately another two weeks. The programme of events can be found at the OK Cafe website.

Local residents and campaigners held a peaceful vigil outside Longsight police station on Tuesday evening in support of the family, who now face having their home seized under the Terrorist Act. Munir Farooqi was convicted alongside two other men and given four life sentences in September when he was found guilty of attempting to recruit two undercover officers to fight in Afghanistan. He is currently appealing his conviction.

The CPS has justified the eviction of his family “on the basis that the property was used for the purposes of terrorism”, although the notice of application for the forfeiture order does not specify in which way. None of the family, which includes two young children, has been found guilty of any related offence and it is believed to be the first time authorities have attempted to utilise anti-terror legislation in this manner.

The eviction would leave the family of seven homeless, and supporters of the “Save the Family Home” campaign say they have gathered over 3,000 signatures from local mosques, churches and workplaces protesting the seizure of the property. Zulaika Farooqi, Munir’s daughter, praised the “excellent response from the diverse community, not just the Muslim community.”

Reverend Gary Serra di Migni, a local Baptist minister, said: “You cannot take a home away from innocent people. Munir Farooqi’s name isn’t even on the title deeds, they belong to his wife. And the community is saying that this is an injustice. It just can’t be done, and if it happens it’s wrong.” He added, “This isn’t a Muslim thing, it’s not an Asian thing, it’s not a faith thing, the whole community is saying this is not right.”

Munir’s son Harris Farooqi, who was acquitted of a charge of preparing for an act of terrorism, was emotional as he explained the feelings of the family. “It’s a family house. Why is it collective punishment in a democratic society? I don’t understand,” he said, drawing parallels with similar threats to evict the families of individuals convicted of taking part in August’s riots from social housing. “We as British citizens work here all our lives and then we’re thrown out onto the streets.”

He also expressed alarm at what he saw as a lack of communication from the authorities, and in a prior statement said: “I have been through hell for the past two years. I cannot believe what the police are doing to me and my family…This has been our family home for years and I feel so sad that my mother and family have to go through this nightmare. We just want to live in peace and want the CPS to reconsider its application for the forfeiture of our home.”

The vigil was held as local Imams took part in a Masjid Forum discussion with police, although a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said the meeting was a regularly held event with Muslim faith leaders and was not arranged specifically to discuss the campaign.

Chief Superintendent Stuart Barton said: “We are aware that some members of our community are concerned at plans to realise the assets of Munir Farooqi following his conviction, in particular the seizure of his former home on Victoria Terrace.

“I want to stress that any applications are at a very early stage. Any decision will only be taken after the correct and proper legal procedures are followed through the judicial process.

“Links with our community have never been stronger so I want to stress that as always we will listen to views and take them on board. It is important for me that the community fully understands the reasons behind any decisions that have been made and as a result we will be holding further meetings with community members.

“Whilst some members of the public may see the need to challenge the decisions that have been made, I would ask that this is done in a peaceful manner without any community disruption.”

Richard Goulding