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Here is today's Mancunian Way:
Hello,
Manchester is in the grip of a student housing crisis. Freshers at both of the city’s universities have been offered money to live in accommodation in other cities - Liverpool, Preston and Huddersfield - due to shortages here.
The University of Manchester has offered students £2,500, along with £100 per week travel expenses, to free up around 350 rooms. Just under 200 have taken up the offer.
Meanwhile students at Manchester Metropolitan University have been offered £100 a week to take up rooms in Huddersfield and Liverpool - a 'temporary' option while staff work to accommodate students here.
Nicole Wootton-Cane has been talking to those affected, including Elspeth McIntyre, from Liverpool, who was asked if she’d consider giving up her room in Manchester for cash. She’s since been offered a room in Fallowfield and says she feels 'lucky’. "I'm going to get great life experience and live with like-minded people. If I didn't have an offer for accommodation right now I'd be very, very anxious."
So what’s behind it? Universities typically make more offers than they have places, but post-pandemic ‘grade inflation' remains high and more achieved the required A Level grades for their first choice universities. MMU is also thought to have experienced greater demand in clearing than expected.
Mini budget
With Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng due to deliver a mini-Budget on Friday, The Mirror’s Dan Bloom and Ashley Cowburn have been looking at what it could mean.
It will focus on the tax cuts the Prime Minister promised in the leadership contest. She is also thought to be planning to borrow billions to fund her plan to cap average energy bills at £2,500 a year for two years. The detail on how that will be funded is due to be explained.
Today, the Government announced a new package of energy bill support for businesses, schools and charities which they say could roughly halve the price paid for wholesale gas and electricity by non-domestic customers. Business groups have warned the six-month scheme is just a 'short-term fix'.
Weather, etc.
- Thursday: Cloudy changing to light rain in the afternoon. 18C.
- Roads closed: A57 Eccles New Road westbound from Stott Lane to Gilda Brook Road until September 26.
Manchester headlines
A pioneer: Tributes have been paid to former Oldham council leader Jean Stretton, who has died aged 64. Coun Stretton, who represented Hollinwood for 19 years, became the council's first female leader back in 2016. Raised on Oldham's Alt Estate, the great grandmother was a governor at several schools and was a keen supporter of Oldham Foodbank. Council leader Amanda Chadderton described Jean as ‘an Oldhamer through and through’. “As Oldham Council’s first female leader she championed the borough on a regional level and I’m honoured that I have been able to follow in her footsteps.”
Reliability: Avanti West Coast is currently the worst operator for train reliability in Britain. The rail industry’s cancellations score during the 12 months to August 20 was 3.7%, analysis of Office of Rail and Road data by the PA news agency found. That’s the poorest reliability in records dating back to 2015. Cancellations scores reflect the percentage of services that are either fully or part-cancelled. Avanti West Coast scored highest with 14.9%. Strike action has led to a surge of cancellations in recent months. Avanti has apologised for the ‘enormous frustration and inconvenience’, blaming a shortage of staff.
Tram accident: A tram driver who dragged a woman 40ft along a platform when her bag was trapped in the doors was 'unaware' of the accident, a new report has revealed. The passenger's hand was stuck in the strap of her bag which was trapped in the doors of a tram at the Shudehill Metrolink stop. She suffered injuries to her face and hand. A 'safety digest' published by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch says the driver was not aware of the accident as they were focusing on a tram signal and on pedestrians. The passenger would not have been visible on the tram's CCTV system because she was blocked from view behind a ticket machine, the report says. Keolis Amey Metrolink said the network remains ‘amongst the safest public transport systems in the UK, and incidents of this nature are rare’, but said they would ‘build on the findings’. Full details here.
Tales From the Future
Science has many uses, but some are more delicious than others. Independent Manchester brewery Cloudwater has collaborated with scientists to create a new beer using a yeast that has been specially created in the labs at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.
Tales From the Future is a ‘saison’ style beer that uses a novel strain of yeast called Saccharomyces jurei - developed from a strain found in the foothills of the French Alps. Cloudwater CEO Paul Jones says the beer represents ‘the possibilities of joining academia with industry’.
Worth a read
For a long time, it was impossible to catch a train between Piccadilly and Victoria train stations. The disconnect created a huge blockage of railway traffic and meant passengers had to trek across town on foot. Until 1974 you couldn't even catch a bus between Piccadilly and Victoria, as a powerful taxi lobby blocked any attempts to introduce a service.
Companies on the north side of the city centre, such as the Co-op, tended to draw the bulk of their workforce from Rochdale, Bury and Bolton, while those around Piccadilly tended to draw most of their staff from the southern suburbs.
It all stemmed from the ‘wild west’ style competition of Victorian railway mania - which saw companies competing to build tracks across the country, without any thought for how the network might join up. As Damon Wilkinson writes, those petty rivalries left Manchester with a headache that town planners and rail chiefs are still trying to cure almost two centuries later.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email: beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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