Would it come as a shock to you if we said that Manchester has earned itself a place in the top 10 for towns with the “noisiest neighbours” in the UK?
Is it a title us unspoken Mancunians would wear with pride?
According to new Freedom of Information data obtained by leading insurance comparison website, Confused.com – which looked at how many noise complaints were made in the top 100 most populated places in the country – more than a quarter of a million noise complaints were made to UK councils last year, and Manchester lands at number six on the top 10 list of places where those complaints were lodged, with 6,274 complaints made in total and a rate of 276 complaints per 10,000 households in the region.
The city was beaten to a top five spot by Cambridge, Portsmouth, Bath, Southampton, and probably unsurprisingly coming in at number one, London.
ADVERTISEMENT
Perhaps more shockingly though is that Manchester was also joined in the top 10 by Stockport.
The Greater Manchester borough town ranks at number eight on the list, with 253 complaints per 10,000 households.
The UK’s Noisiest Neighbours
ADVERTISEMENT
London (158,958)
Southampton (5,147)
Bath (3,288)
Portsmouth (3,490)
Cambridge (1,693)
Manchester (6,274)
Oxford (1,521)
Stockport (3,282)
Luton (2,003)
Brighton (3,182)
The research also revealed that of the some 250,000 noise complaints lodged across the UK within the last year, of those who did complain, more than half (52%) went directly to their neighbour to resolve the issue, 49% got in touch with their local council, and a third (33%) even went as far as reporting their neighbour to the police.
Researchers at Confused.com also conducted a survey of 2,000 Brits to find out what people think about their neighbours and what they are likely to complain about.
The largest source of noise pollution as voted by survey participants was loud music at 50%.
ADVERTISEMENT
This was followed by loud parties (43%), raised voices / shouting (29%), barking dogs / excessive animal noise (24%), and television noise (21%).
How about on the other end of the spectrum though?
Well, when it comes to the towns with the quietest neighbours, the sleepy Gloucestershire town of Cheltenham took the top spot, shortly followed by Solihull in second place, and then rounding out the top three is another Greater Manchester representative – Oldham.
There were 615 complaints of noise in Oldham, a rate of just 67 per 10,000 households.
Speaking on the research findings, Jessica Willock – Home Insurance Expert at Confused.com – said: “It’s no fun living in a noisy neighbourhood, and it seems some areas across the UK are a lot worse for noise pollution than others.
ADVERTISEMENT
“And living with noisy neighbours can be really difficult to handle without creating tension.
“More often than not, a friendly conversation goes a long way, but when that fails, where to turn to next can be confusing [which is why] we’ve created a guide to understanding basic neighbour etiquette, including how best to handle noisy situations.
“While calling the police might seem like the best route to take, you should in fact be getting in touch with your local council”.
Incredible misty drone footage shows how Manchester earned its ‘Manctopia’ nickname
Daisy Jackson
Drone footage captured from way above Manchester shows just how quickly the city has grown – and proves that our hometown is well on its way to earning its ‘Manctopia’ nickname.
Cast your mind back just a few years and you’ll remember that Beetham Tower stuck out like a sore thumb, towering many storeys above the next tallest building.
In fact, until just four years ago, the next-tallest building here was City Tower, which was a good 17 storeys shorter than Beetham Tower.
Then along came Renaker with visions for an entirely new skyscraper neighbourhood – Deansgate Square.
The drone footage captured above Manchester. Credit: Instagram @lef_tsotour
This group of skyscrapers now completely dominate the Manchester skyline, with the tallest building a massive 65 storeys tall.
South Tower is not only the tallest building in Greater Manchester, it’s also the 10th tallest in the entire UK, and the biggest outside of London.
It’s all led to Manchester being coined ‘Manctopia’, the name of a BBC documentary that followed property developers Capital & Centric as they redevelop buildings around the region.
One local photographer has managed to capture the unbelievable scale of our new, ultra-modern city skyline, with drone footage soaring among the skyscrapers.
Known on Instagram as @lef_tsotour, they shared a video taken on a misty Manchester morning.
It captures both Deansgate Square, with sun glinting off the many windows of the towers, and the now-dwarfed Beetham Tower.
You can also see the railway lines snaking through the city centre, cars nipping around the ring road, and the comparatively small apartment blocks around Castlefield.
Commenting on the video, one person said: “This is mint.”
Another wrote: “Fricken love this!!!!”
Featured image: @lef_tsotour
Trending
Question Time audience stunned as first-time buyer says mortgage quote DOUBLED
Danny Jones
Thursday night’s Question Time audience could be heard audibly gasping after a fellow crowd member revealed that her mortgage quote had doubled followed the recent mini-budget.
Taping in Manchester on 29 September, the current events and politics programme was discussing property when would-be first-time buyer Rabia revealed that her mortgage offer had jumped from an initial amount of 4.5% interest to a shocking 10.5% in just a matter of days.
As you can see in the incredible clip, both the audience and the panel are taken aback at the revelation.
The gasps from the audience as this woman reveals she’s received a revised mortgage offer of 10.5%. pic.twitter.com/a5Nb1co8al
The Greater Manchester resident said she is desperate to know what the government’s plan for mortgages is as following the latest revision, she says she simply cannot afford to put the money down on her first home.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer weighed in on the social media reaction, quote tweeting the clip from his party’s own account and stating that “the Tories must get back to Parliament and reverse their kamikaze budget” as the current economic mess is being “paid for by working people”.
The government’s economic chaos is already clobbering those like Rabia who're trying to get a mortgage or to re-mortgage.
This crisis was made in Downing Street but it’s being paid for by working people.
The Tories must get back to Parliament and reverse their kamikaze budget. https://t.co/bw8B2TOUgl
To make matters worse, Rabia was given no clarification from her lenders, only that they were pulling her offers. Conservative MP and Minister for Local Government, Faith and Communities, Paul Scully had little information to offer her either, simply stating it is a short-term effect and that the market will stabilise.
Scully was subject to an entirely different reaction from the audience as well after his blind attempts to defend Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng were met with laughter. Conversely, Richard Bacon was met with applause after he labelled the mini-budget “absurd”.
As if the anti-Tory sentiment wasn’t already at a high, the chancellor’s mini-budget – which saw the corporations, bankers and the generally wealthy benefit ahead of the working class – has seen fresh calls for a general election to be held as soon as possible.
Beyond declaring a so-called £2,500 limit on energy bills (which many have warned isn’t a guaranteed cap), there was seemingly very little in the way of policy that
For those still unclear as to what was announced in the divisive mini-budget, here is a quick summary:
Speaking in a speech at the Labour conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Starmer said that the government “haven’t just failed to fix the roof, they’ve ripped out the foundations, smashed the windows and now they’ve blown the doors off for good measure.
Emily Sergeant -
30th March 2021 
