Hundreds of homeless people in Manchester have now been helped “get back on their feet” thanks to a successful pilot housing scheme.
Greater Manchester’s ‘Housing First’ pilot scheme was rolled out in 2019.
The scheme is all about recognising that “a good home has to be the first step to a good life”, according to Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), and since it was first introduced, it has primarily been helping people with chronic and long-standing experiences of homelessness into homes of their own, without preconditions.
Ongoing personalised wraparound support to manage issues, ranging from mental health problems to substance misuse, is also a key part of what the scheme’s all about.
Since 2019, the scheme then has helped a total of 413 people find “good, safe homes”, GMCA has revealed.
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Around 75% of those housed have also sustained their tenancies too, with some even going on to form part of Housing First’s co-production panel – sharing their experiences, and making sure that the service continues to meet people’s needs.
Giving everyone a good, safe home is one of the best investments this country can make.
That’s why we want to take the lessons of our @GMHousingFirst pilot & follow @FinlandInUK by adopting it as our philosophy in Greater Manchester.
Because of the clear success of the pilot in our region, Greater Manchester and Mayor Andy Burnham are now calling on the Government to take the lessons learned from the scheme and embed them into a new approach to tackle the housing crisis nationwide.
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Andy Burnham says he believes that giving everyone a good, safe home would be “one of the best investments the country could make”, as it would “take pressure off” other public services and public finances, and declared that our region is ready to follow in Finland’s footsteps by becoming the first UK city-region to adopt the ‘Housing First’ philosophy permenantly.
“The evidence is clear that it works, and when a pilot scheme gets results it shouldn’t end there – it should become the new normal,” Mr Burnham said.
A ‘life-changing’ scheme has helped house hundreds of Greater Manchester’s homeless people / Credit: Manchester City Council
“Housing First has shown that if you give people an unconditional right to safe and secure housing, backed up with personalised support, you set them up to succeed, so instead of winding it down, we should be scaling it up and turning it into a national mission.
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“We’re starting that here in Greater Manchester.
“We’re bringing in new protections for renters, tackling bad landlords, and with the right powers and funding, we can deliver 75,000 new homes in this parliament.
“Our new Housing First Unit will drive this work forward, bringing together partners across our city-region with a clear goal – a healthy home for everyone in Greater Manchester by 2038.”
Featured Image – Flickr
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Emily Sergeant -
16th September 2024 
