Manchester’s council tenants face an inflation-busting 6.48 per cent rent hike from April, according to plans signed off by Town Hall chiefs last week. Social tenants across the country face even steeper rises, as the government slashes welfare and pushes through housing reforms.
Core services in Manchester’s 39 Sure Start centres are to be preserved following a year-long battle by campaigners. Council-run daycare is still to be scrapped however – despite councillors raising serious concerns.
At least £1 billion in public spending was cut from the “city region” of Greater Manchester and Warrington over the last year, according to University of Manchester researchers. The study, carried out for Radio 4, anticipates a total of £10 billion to be slashed from the area over the next four years as part of the government’s austerity drive.
Unemployment in Greater Manchester has risen by 13.5 per cent in the last year while the number of young people claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) climbed to unprecedented levels seen during the recession, according to the latest figures from the Commission for the New Economy.
Over two hundred people rallied in Manchester’s Albert Square on Saturday in opposition to government cuts to support for disabled people. Similar demonstrations were held across the country as part of a national day of action called for by the Hardest Hit campaign.
Mancunians who are more reluctant to welcome the Tories to the city centre than the council may well be interested in what they’ve been getting up to since they swarmed out of Piccadilly on Sunday. From the looks of it, they’re hardly likely to have endeared themselves to anyone.
Around 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Manchester today to protest against the Conservative Party Conference. The demonstration, named ‘Manchester for the Alternative’, was organised by the Trades Union Congress and the Right to Work campaign and drew in unionists and anti-cuts protestors from around the UK, with some coming from as far away as the West Country and Wales.
