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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
Hello,
As we await details of the Prime Minister’s plan to help with energy bills, leaders in Manchester are making their own plans for the winter.
Today’s newsletter looks at the financial difficulties facing households, local authorities, businesses and care homes.
Libraries as heat banks
Anticipating that many people simply won’t be able to afford to heat their homes, this winter councils are taking action.
Public libraries in Manchester will be opened up as ‘warm banks’ as an ‘emergency response’, while Wigan and Tameside councils have already confirmed plans to use their own public buildings as 'heat banks' to support those struggling to pay their bills.
Manchester Council leader Bev Craig says she will be announcing measures to help people with ‘the limited resources we have’. “One of many initiatives will include our Libraries promoting themselves as a 'neighbourhood living room' where people of all ages can access free internet, wi-fi, books and information and where no one will question why you are there," she told reporters Ethan Davies and Tom Molloy.
Meanwhile, The Great Northern Warehouse, is inviting community groups to use its free-to-hire ‘Village Hall’ as a warm bank.
Liz Truss has vowed to take a 'hands on' approach to dealing with the energy crisis. But Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton, Graham Stringer, says he is unimpressed after she claimed that the crisis was ‘caused by Putin's war’.
"The Government have left this country completely unprepared for another crisis because they've wasted money and they've not secured our energy supply at a reasonable cost. We're all having to be imaginative as we can, so that the most vulnerable people don't literally freeze to death."
Severe and unprecedented
Though local authorities are making plans to help residents, they’re not without their own money troubles.
Bev Craig is one of many leaders currently writing to the government calling for extra urgent support to help cope with rising costs. Manchester council has a £20m budget gap caused by 'severe and unprecedented' financial pressures.
As Joseph Timan reports, the town hall has blamed the 'significant' overspend on the 'hangover' impact of Covid on the council's income such as from parking and, predominantly, inflation.
In a normal year, the council would budget around £8m to cover rising costs, but responding to forecasts of high inflation, a further £21m was set aside. But because inflation was projected to peak at around 5 pc when the budget was set earlier this year, this figure was £7m short of what is now required.
The town hall had also budgeted £7m to put towards pay rises, but as the current offer stands at around 7 pc on average, another £9.5m is needed. The total cost of inflation to the council's coffers is currently expected to be £38m more than it would be in a 'normal' year.
Care home bills soar 900%
Care homes look after the country’s most vulnerable people - for most, that means turning off the lights and switching off the heating is an impossibility. Manager Craig Priestley says he has no choice but to keep the heating on 24/7 at Gorsey Clough care home, in Bury.
"Our bills have doubled and it's becoming an increasing worry. We went through covid and didn't do too badly but it's one issue after another,” he told reporter Sophie Halle-Richards. "I want to maintain high standards of care and I don't want to cut back on food or nursing staff to pay for energy bills. I can only hope that the government introduces support like they did during the pandemic.
"We care for vulnerable people with dementia and we have the heating on 24-7 and that's not negotiable. I just don't want to be cutting down on quality and I don't think it's fair to increase prices."
Care England has warned of a mass exodus from the social care sector and is calling for a government package of support. Professor Martin Green OBE says ‘45% of providers’ are considering exiting the market due to the current financial unsustainability in the sector. "The adult social care sector is bearing the brunt of this storm, with care providers suffering from increases in their energy costs of over 600%, with no support from Government,” he said.
The impact on restaurants
Greater Manchester’s night time economy adviser has predicted ‘An extremely tense few days ahead’ as we wait to see how the government approaches the energy crisis.
“The Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is now fully armed with our asks to save Hospitality businesses, jobs, the High St and the whole supply chain. Operators are waiting on every word, deciding whether to plough through, or close. It's that critical,” Sacha Lord warned in a tweet this morning.
Chef Tom Kerridge has also weighed in with concerns about the future for many in hospitality. The Michelin-starred chef has run the Bull & Bear restaurant in Manchester’s Stock Exchange Hotel since 2019. He has heard of cases where restaurants are facing rising energy costs of ‘anywhere between 300 to 700pc’ this year. He says energy bills at his three pubs have skyrocketed from £60,000 to £420,000.
He told reporter Adam Maidment : “If you think of the small independent pub where the owners live upstairs, if their electricity bill rises by £70,000 then there is going to be no pub anymore. That’s the end of it. There is a colossal tidal wave of issues coming our way unless we face up to it and our government starts to look at it in a very constructive way.”
Mr Kerridge is calling for an energy price cap for business, alongside VAT reductions.
Weather, etc.
- Thursday: Sunny intervals changing to thunder showers by lunchtime. 21C.
- Roads closed: A57 Eccles New Road westbound for roadworks from Stott Lane to Gilda Brook Road until September 12.
- Trams: No service on Metrolink between Eccles and MediaCityUK due to engineering works until October 21.
- Today's Manc trivia question: Which MP was Northern Powerhouse minister until February 2020?
Answer at the bottom of the newsletter
Manchester headlines
Giggs: Ex-Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs says he is ‘obviously disappointed’ that he is to face a retrial on domestic violence charges but wants to clear his name. Giggs had been on trial for four weeks but last week, following more than 20 hours of deliberations, the jury failed to reach any verdicts. Judge Hilary Manley approved an application by prosecutors for a second trial during a brief hearing at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday. It will begin on July 31 next year.
When? Increasing train services between Manchester and London is an' absolute priority', Transport minister has said - without indicating when it might happen. Trudy Harrison made the comments in response to an urgent Commons question about Avanti West Coast. The operator has run fewer than half of its normal services since August 14 and blamed the reduction on 'unofficial strike action' by drivers. More here.
Mughli: Pakistani grill restaurant Mughli has hit out at a one-star Google review, in which a diner complained about a bill of £122 and called the Curry Mile favourite’s dishes ‘small and over-priced’. They claimed they were not given enough food and had to go to another restaurant to get more. Restaurant bosses took to Twitter to clarify some of the economic realities of restaurant ownership. “Let’s be kind to those struggling alongside us. We’re all feeling the pinch together,” they said.
Gorgeous: Manchester drag star Cheddar Gorgeous will appear on the latest series of Rupaul’s Drag Race UK. Cheddar, who is well known on the Manchester drag scene, previously hosted Channel 4’s Drag SOS and is the first Drag Race UK queen with a doctorate.
MOSI
This image from 1977 shows the mural that was once painted on the side of the North Western Museum of Science & Industry, in Manchester city centre.
Worth a read
Fees going up, staff walking out and parents struggling to cope - there’s a crisis in Greater Manchester’s nurseries. Reporter Sophie Halle-Richards has been talking to those at the heart of it about how owners are facing a 'mass exodus' due to a lack of decent wages.
Wendy Hartley, 59, runs the Brown Bear nursery chain in Stockport and says childcare providers are doing everything they can to keep prices affordable for parents, but a combination of underfunding from the government and local authorities, as well as the current cost of living crisis, is forcing her and her colleagues to make some difficult decisions.
"I have been working in the early years sector in Stockport for 40 years and I have never seen the sector in such a crisis. It's on its knees," she said.
You can read the full piece here
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me, the next edition of the Mancunian Way will be with you around the same time tomorrow. If you have any stories you would like us to feature or look into, please email: beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk
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The answer to today’s trivia question, which MP was Northern Powerhouse minister until February 2020, is Jake Berry, now a Cabinet minister in Liz Truss's government.
