Richard Leese, leader of the totally Labour-controlled Manchester City Council, along with the Council’s Chief Executive, Howard Bernstein.  Are constantly promoting the need for more offices, hotels, retail units and ‘homes-to-buy’, despite the fact we have a surplus.  In other words, supply exceeds demand by some considerable margin, which any visitor to Manchester can easily observe.

In a recent copy of Commercial Property Register, North West, June – Sept 2014.  It can be easily determined we have an excess of office space.  Meanwhile, in the Hotel sector, they are boasting of exceptional hotel occupancy rates.  From the Business News, 2nd October 2014:

In the first eight months of 2014 the city centre had an average occupancy rate of 76% – a figure previously unmatched at this point in the year since records began. This figure has been sustained by record weekday rates (75% average YTD) and strong performing weekend rates (81% average YTD).

In April of this year, the Manchester Evening News published an article about the record occupation rates.  Claiming there were three days where the occupancy rate was at 98%.  This still allows for some slack, and with the average year to date (YTD) figures of 75% weekdays and 81%.  There is still plenty of room at the inn, so why is there any real need for more hotels to be built?  1 in 4 empty rooms during weekdays and 1 in 5 empty at weekends, how is this economical?  If the hotel business was so vibrant and profitable, why did Forte Hotels, put Salford’s 5=star hotel, The Lowry Hotel, up for sale.  Especially it sit across the River Irwell, from Manchester City Centre.  Some of the rooms presently occupied, will be occupied by contractors working on all this new build.

From Homes from Empty Homes:

Current Empty Homes Statistics

The data is obtained from council tax information.  The data is supplied by owners of empty homes who report their properties as empty to their council. Councils usually offer exemptions from council tax for empty homes, which gives an incentive for owners to report thier property as empty.Click here for a detailed regional breakdown.

In 2013, the figures for Manchester were, 209,138 total dwellings, of which 5,399, 2.58% were empty, whilst 2,780, 1.33% were long term empty.  So why is Manchester City Council still pursuing a policy of demolishing perfectly fit council homes?  Only to build more ‘homes-to-buy’, nobody can afford.  As well as wasting council revenues on pursuing compulsory purchase orders (CPOs)?  Just so that some speculators can enrich themselves?  The council now videos their council meetings, which people may find either amusing or pathetic, especially as a number of important documents were not available, allegedly