Austerity is a scam but green growth isn’t the answer either.

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

There is a Global movement calling for the end of ecocide: https://www.endecocide.org/en/. Something I think Mark Burton is striving for with Steady State Manchester. Manchester City Council, under Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein, have been pushing a policy of build, build and build more. This is offices, retail units, hotels and home-to-buy, when what is needed, is investment in front-line services and council housing. And as Mark points out, there are those, who are supposed to be ‘Green’, also wanting to follow the policy of build, build and more build. Which would would only drive climate change and inequality.
That is why I was to come across the European Trade Union Institute pursuing: Social innovation and equality keys to social ecological transition. At the bottom is a link to a presentation, showing how austerity has driven inequality. One change I would make to the presentation, is slide 5. I would change the box with ‘Inclusive Growth’ in it, to ‘Inclusive Prosperity’.

Steady State Manchester

Yesterday, 3rd December, 2014, The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, made his autumn statement in which he set out the government’s plans on the economy.

He confirmed that a Tory government will continue to cut public spending in the years to come. Indeed it turns out, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. As the Office of Budget Responsibility puts it, the government’s plans mean that

Between 2009-10 and 2019-20, spending on public services, administration and grants by central government is projected to fall from 21.2 per cent to 12.6 per cent of GDP and from £5,650 to £3,880 per head in 2014-15 prices. Around 40 per cent of these cuts would have been delivered during this Parliament, with around 60 per cent to come during the next. The implied squeeze on local authority spending is similarly severe.

http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/December_2014_EFO-web513.pdf

For a sound analysis of where these cuts will fall, see Richard Murphy’s piece, accurately…

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Manchester’s property bubble

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

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

Democratic Manchester City Council!

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

Manchester City Council continue to show, that they are overwhelmingly not acting in the residents best interests, once again ignoring it’s electorate. It has almost total control of the council and acts as a dictatorship. This is to ensure that Bernstein and Leese build their ivory towers, ensuring the City of Manchester, is all fur-coat and no knickers:  Mersey Valley warden service facing the axe.

manchester climate monthly

Two must-read articles about Alexandra Park, where the chainsaws are moving in… (See our previous editorial on the subject here).

From the Hulme Green Party, “Alex Park protesters take to trees to stop “Felling Vandalism”

Manchester Green Party Chair Deyika Nzeribe commented “The campaign group has done everything right. They got over 2000 signatures asking for the plans to be reconsidered, they got local experts to show how the councils plans to be altered to preserve trees and they have been in dialogue with both the Council and funders the Lottery every step of the way. They have been completely ignored.

To draw a parallel, last week Manchester City Council made a great show of how unfair the cuts to local budgets were and how the government were ignoring them. The council are acting in exactly the same way as the government to this local issue.”

From Nadine…

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Six Reasons Why Politicians Believe They Can Lie | Psychology Today

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

An interesting article on why politicians lie.  And it is very pertinent to Manchester and the Labour run council.  For years now councillor Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein have been trumpeting the success of their regeneration plans for the City.  This is despite their are hundreds of office and retails units empty, some for years since being built.  Then, there is the high unemployment, deprivation, poverty, fuel poverty and homelessness.  Even despite all this evidence, their plans have not succeeded but have been proven to be a waste of tax-payers money.  And in some cases, this money cannot be accounted for, but no criminal investigation or charges have been made.  Still, their loyal following, including members of Labour’s shadow cabinet, think everything is fine.  In the meantime, the real Mancunians (no matter what their colour), suffer.  And the reason why, is explained in the article below.

Six Reasons Why Politicians Believe They Can Lie | Psychology Today.