Lib Dems respond to Centre for Cities study

Centre for Cities: High debt levels in North leave people badly prepared post-Coronavirus
 

THE Liberal Democrats have responded to a Centre for Cities report warning that high debt levels in Northern England and Wales will leave people poorly prepared for the post-coronavirus economic downturn.

Their new research maps debt levels in England and Wales and found that in Northern England and Wales’ cities, people have the highest levels of debt relative to their incomes.

On average, for every £5 people earn in Warrington, Swansea, Sunderland and Wigan, they owe around £1. This compares to Oxford and Cambridge where people owe just 35p for every £5 they earn on average

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for the North John Leech said:

“Report after report and analysis after analysis shows the North hit hardest. From schools to busses, pensions to child poverty, and now debt.

“Let’s be absolutely clear: this is another example of the undeniable and devastating result of decades of overinvestment and relentless focus on London and the South, and it cannot be solved overnight with warm words.

“It’s time to take the North/South divide and its impact on people’s lives seriously.

“Ministers, MPs and councillors must listen and commit to investing in the North, and they must do it with real urgency to guarantee real equality across our region.

“Only the Liberal Democrats are standing up for the North. We will continue fighting to rebalance our regional economies, making sure those in the North are not continuously left worse off and build a brighter future where everyone gets their fair share, no matter where they live.”

ENDS.

Manchester ranks worst for child homelessness

  outside of London

One in 47 children in Manchester is in need of temporary accommodation, according to new figures released by Shelter.

An astonishing 2,725 children in Manchester were in need of temporary accommodation in 2019, ranking the city highest outside of London for child homelessness.

The number of children in temporary accommodation across the North West was up an astonishing 385% – the highest anywhere in the UK.

An estimated 6,523 children were made homeless in the North West last year, meaning 18 children became homeless every single day, or one child being made homeless every 18 minutes.

The Liberal Democrats have warned that both national and local government are condemning a generation of children to the streets.

Labour's Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction

Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Manchester John Leech said:

“While Westminster is obsessed with pushing through a damaging Brexit, problems in Manchester are accelerating at a UK-high rate, and children in Manchester are paying the price.

"But it is the Tories’ complete lack of interest in tackling the national homeless crisis which is aptly coupled with Labour’s appalling Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction which hit those already struggling even harder.

“This doesn't just highlight the gross incompetence and lack of priorities from local and national government, nor is it just a complete embarrassment, but it exposes the devastating, critical and consistent failure of a system that simply doesn’t care.

"The Lib Dems have a clear plan to end this crisis. Lib Dems will end wasteful spending, invest more money than ever before into preventing homelessness, tackling the cause, guarantee at least 100,000 social homes every year, scrap the Homeless Tax and finally put an end to the greatest injustice of our lifetime.

"Only the Lib Dems will stop Brexit and build a brighter future where children in Manchester and beyond will always have a roof over their heads and a council with their best interests at heart, no matter what"

ENDS.

'NO SHAME!' Cuts for us, rises for them!

'You ought to be ashamed of yourselves' - Cuts to vital local services but 52% pay rise for Labour’s 'Strategic Communications Director'

PRESS STATEMENT FROM Liberal Democrats
Office of John Leech

MANCHESTER Council's Strategic Communications Director is set to receive a staggering pay rise of nearly 29% just 18 months after an 18% pay rise.

John Leech has hit out at Manchester City Council today as it awarded its chief spin doctor another staggering pay rise just 18 months after an above-inflation pay rise.

Just 18 months ago the Labour Council waved through pay rises of up to 60% for 11 posts, including the Head of Strategic Communications which saw a healthy 18% pay rise.

Now it is being regraded and re-designated to become the Director of Strategic Communications with another pay rise of up to an eye-watering 29%.

This means, in just over a year, Manchester Labour have hiked the post's pay by up to 52% at a time when vital services are cut.

In a heated statement, the city's sole opposition member, John Leech, told the town hall:

"This council has let countless staff go, told other staff that they have to make do with a 1% pay increase and claimed to local residents it cannot fund vital local services.

"But the grim reality is, when this Council wants to, it can find enough money for almost anything - not least of course when it comes to awarding the person responsible for making the Council look good a stomach-turning pay rise of up to 52%.

"For a council that claims poverty and blames Government cuts every single time I suggest taking on vulnerable refugee children or tackling the homeless crisis, the ability to find money for vanity projects and endless pay rises for top bosses is beyond impressive.

"You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves."

Ends

Manchester Housing Plan or 'Social Cleansing'

One Man Liberal Democrat Opposition: Cllr. John Leech

MANCHESTER Council has been accused of social cleansing* as it refuses to guarantee affordable homes in a development involving up to 2,500 houses.
Today (20th, Jan. 2017), in another of Manchester's heated council meetings, the sole opposition member, Liberal Democrat John Leech, unravelled the council's plans to build 2,500 homes in the city centre, not a single one of which is guaranteed to be affordable.
The Manchester North development, recently approved without a single Labour councillor questioning the lack of affordable homes, is one of several large developments in the city.  Yet not a single one of the proposed homes is certain to be affordable.  This plan has now been labeled 'Labour-style social cleansing.'
When the sole opposition councilor, Lib Dem. John Leech asked Councillor Bernard Priest if he could guarantee that any of the 2,500 homes would be affordable.  Mr Priest said he 'could not give that guarantee'.
Councillor Priest added that he 'anticipated the council would continue to be led by Labour politicians for a considerable number of years', but still wouldn't commit to making any of the 2,500 new homes affordable.
The Liberal Democrat councillor John Leech, has challenged the proposals, accusing the council of 'Labour-style social cleansing based on who can afford to live in the most desirable parts of the city.'
He said:  'This council continues to put profit before people. It is unacceptable that so many people have got their life on hold while this council continues to prioritise expensive houses for sale and making profit from land instead of genuinely affordable homes.'
As South Manchester's MP of ten years, John Leech, criticised decisions in 2013 when plots in Chorlton on Darley Avenue for 86 homes were sold off by the council to private companies for profit, rather than saved for affordable housing.

Councilor Leech then added: 
'This city is in desperate need of good quality, genuinely affordable family homes near existing public transport links and infrastructure, and we need to start taking this seriously. To build 2,500 new unaffordable houses is an insult to the 14,000 people currently on waiting lists across the city.
'If this council is committed to building genuinely affordable homes then why are they refusing to guarantee even one of these 2,500 houses will be affordable?
'This council put effort into help for first-time buyers but has shown little interest in affordable homes to rent. Why, in a development as large as these in West Didsbury and the City Centre, should not a single home, not one, be up for affordable rent?
'We need a balance of affordable homes to rent and buy across all of our communities in the whole of this city, not a Labour-style social cleansing based on who can afford to live in the most desirable parts.'
 The councillor, who was on fierce form despite receiving a barrage of personal comments and mocking from the 95 strong Labour group, also criticised the council for recently approving a housing development on Cavendish Road, West Didsbury without insisting on any houses being available for affordable rent.

*  Social cleansing (Spanish: limpieza social) is class-based killing that consists of elimination of members of society considered "undesirable," including but not limited to the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, sex workers, and sexual minorities^{[clarification needed]}.^[1][2][3] This phenomenon is caused by a combination of economic and social factors, but killings are notably present in regions with high levels of poverty and disparities of wealth.^[1][4] Perpetrators are usually of the same community as the victims and are often motivated by the idea that the victims are a drain on the resources of society.