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Here's the Mancunian Way for Monday, October 10:
Hello
If you're one of the new breed of post-pandemic hybird workers, there's a good chance you'll be reading today's Mancunian Way from the comfort of your own home. That's because for many of us who now divide our week between the office and home, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are by far the most popular days to go into work.
In today's newsletter we'll take a look at the impact this new pattern of working is having on life in the city centre. We're also going to be singing the praises of Leigh, a town of just 40,000 people that by the end of 2022 will have hosted the rugby league World Cup and the football European Championships and we'll be checking out two very different types of eateries that have been earning national plaudits.
Has WFH killed the post-work Friday pint?
A recent survey found just 13% of staff are now going into the office on Fridays. It's because, as more and more firms adopt a form of hybrid-working, they're finding employees much prefer to work from home at the beginning and end of the week and go into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
It's helpful for the work/life balance and great if you're a parent of young kids. But it's also having a dramatic impact on the way we socialise and had an unforeseen effect on businesses. Alan Hudd, the licensee of the Briton's Protection, one of Manchester city centre's oldest pubs, says working from home has all but killed the Friday drink with workmates.
He said: "Thursday is like the new Friday. Fridays are very hit and miss because, post-covid, not that many people work in town, so they're not going out for a drink after work. Friday lunchtime is dead and it picks up a bit about 6-7pm. But Thursdays are busier now with people going for a drink after work."
Subrahmaniam Krishnan-Harihara, head of research at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, says while there has been a steady return to the office, it's mainly on the core midweek days, with workers who have the choice often preferring to stay at home on Monday and Friday.
He added: "You look around the city centre and in any direction you'll see skyscrapers and cranes, but footfall and spending, especially during the week, has dropped significantly since the pandemic. The behavioural patterns have changed. Less people are in their normal place of work on Friday.
"Add in the very high cost of everything at the moment and it means household spending on discretionary items is down. Instead of going out to restaurant or for a few drinks on Friday, people are staying in and having a takeaway instead."
How Leigh was put 'back on the map'
It's an often over-looked town of just 40,000 people that's long lived in the shadow of its bigger and noisier neighbours. But now the spotlight is well and truly on Leigh as it undergoes something of a revival.
Leigh has a proud history built on coal, cotton and silk, but like many towns and cities in the north, it was badly hit by the decline of British industry.
But in recent years money has flowed back into the area, summed up by the construction of the £83m Leigh Sports Village in 2008. The 12,000 capacity stadium, home of Leigh Centurions and Manchester United Women, has seen sell-out concerts by Lionel Richie and Elton John in recent years.
And this summer it played host to four games at the Women's Euros - a tournament watched by a record-breaking 365m people worldwide - and later this month will welcome three fixtures in the rugby league World Cup..
But it's not just sport and leisure that's powering Leigh's resurgence. The opening of LSV was followed by the £50 million Loom retail park in the town centre, the guided busway service and a house building boom. The town is so popular some councillors are claiming 'Leigh is full'.
Greater Manchester Mayor and former Leigh MP Andy Burnham says it's the perfect example of the way an old mining town can be 'put back on the map'.
“If you had said to me then, in 2001, that 20 years hence Leigh would host a UEFA championship and a world cup, then even I would’ve struggled to believe that was possible,” Mr Burnham said, “But that is what 2022 will bring to Leigh."
And there could be even more to come. A new train station in Golborne and the completion of Atherleigh Way bypass are things that Mr Burnham and Tory MP James Grundy are both calling for, despite being on opposite sides of the political divide.
“The town is transitioning from a poor post-industrial town gradually into a potentially wealthy commuter community," Mr Grundy said. "We have to use both public and private investment to complete this transformation, and if we do, I believe Leigh will have a great future ahead of it.”
‘Almost inexcusable’
In the latest in his series of articles exposing social housing conditions in Rochdale, Stephen Topping has been examining the wage rises of some of the bosses at the organisation responsible.
Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) hit out at 'historic under investment' in the sector when a Manchester Evening News investigation exposed the conditions tenants had been living in on the Freehold estate.
It is the same estate where Awaab Ishak had been living before his death aged just two in December 2020 - with a post-mortem linking the tragedy with the damp and mould at his home, Rochdale coroners court heard earlier this year. But while some families have been battling grim living conditions and Awaab's loved ones have been grieving, RBH executives have enjoyed handsome pay hikes.
In the same financial year as Awaab's death, five members of RBH's senior management team received total pay packages of more than £100,000, including salary and pension contributions. Four of those executives remain at RBH and benefitted from another pay hike the following financial year - coming into effect less than five months after Awaab's death.
They include RBH chief exec Gareth Swarbrick, who has seen his pay increase from around £140,000 a year in 2012 to £185,000, including £28,000 in pension contributions, in 2021-22.
Housing campaigner Mark Slater, who has been leading the fight against RBH's plans to demolish the Seven Sisters estate, told the M.E.N.: "It's just almost inexcusable when you look at the cost of living and the fact that some of their employees had to ballot for strike action [in 2019] for their pay - yet the execs can can give themselves huge pay rises. It's unacceptable."
In a statement RBH board chair Alison Tumilty and Phill Worthington, chair of RBH's representative body, said the the salaries and pensions are 'in line with pay for senior leadership teams within the social housing sector, reflecting the size of the organisation'.
Read more: While tenants suffered and a family grieved, housing association bosses raked in huge pay rises
'The cooking is something else'
“The food coming out of this ridiculous excuse for a kitchen is glorious, as if key members of a world class orchestra took to busking so that more people could enjoy their genius." It's fair to say Sunday Times restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin enjoyed herself at Flawd in New Islington.
“The cooking... is something else,” she gushed in her review, published yesterday, “especially given it’s whisked up on little more than a panini press." It's a point that was also noted in the Manchester Evening News’s equally complimentary review of the restaurant earlier this year.
And it looks like there's more to come as the team behind Flawd are also soon to revive their Higher Ground concept with a new restaurant in the city, due to open next year.
Read more: National food critic heaps praise on Manchester restaurant
It's not just fancy city centre places earning all the plaudits. Bombay Cuisine, a tiny, unassuming curry house in Prestwich, was last week named the best Indian takeaway in the country.
Our food and drink writer Ben Arnold got in his car to see what all the fuss was about - and thankfully it wasn't a wasted journey.
"It seemed excessive at the time to be crossing the city from one end to the other for the sake of a takeaway," he wrote. "In hindsight, it needed to happen. And I’ll do it again, because Bombay Cuisine is officially National Takeaway of the Year. It’s kind of hard to argue otherwise."
Read more: 'Is this tiny Prestwich takeaway really the best in the UK? I drove for 40 minutes to find out'
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Weather etc
Tuesday: Cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning. 15C.
Roadworks: Temporary traffic lights on Liverpool Road, Eccles due to water main work until October 14.
Trains: No major rail strikes are currently planned, but train managers on Avanti West Coast will strike on October 22 and November 6, in a dispute over the imposition of rosters.
Trivia question: How many Metrolink stops are there on the entire network?
Manchester headlines
Bar brawl: A father was stabbed trying to protect his son who was set upon by a gang outside a bar. The violence erupted outside Hidden Bar, on Silver Street in Bury, in a mass 14-minute brawl that involved a ‘number’ of customers, a council licencing meeting heard. More here
Gas leak: Emergency services cordoned off a Morrisons petrol station and supermarket in Tameside on Monday morning after reports of a gas leak.The store on Mottram Road in Hyde was closed with police and fire crews at the scene. Read more
Best place to live: An emerging Manchester city centre neighbourhood born of 'depressing' but 'fascinating ' derelict sites and industrial buildings has been named in the Sunday Times' exclusive 'best places to live' list. Piccadilly East is the name given to the area behind Piccadilly train station.
Worth a read
Helena Vesty reports on the remarkable and heartbreaking story of Jess, a nurse who woke up from a coma after being assaulted to find the world engulfed in a pandemic, her city locked down, her fiancée tragically dead.
“Once I was physically well enough, I was released into a world I didn’t know," Jess said. "I walked into Manchester city centre to get a taxi and it felt like a version of The Walking Dead. The streets were empty, and the air was silent, I didn’t think I was alive. I can’t explain how scared I was.”
Read more: 'I was assaulted, spent months in a coma - I woke up to covid and my fiancee dead'
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. I'm in the Mancunian Way hotseat all week while Beth's away, so look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.
If you have stories you would like us to look into, email damon.wilkinson@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: 99
