Manchester city centre is now second only to London for its number of rough sleepers. When a report came out with this damning statistic, Manchester's Labour council announced even more cuts targeted at the city's homeless population.

Statistics on Manchester's homeless population are significantly underestimated, based on a single night when researchers walked the streets counting how many people they saw sleeping rough!

Booth House, a provider of services for homeless people and a homeless prevention project will now see its funding cut by a third. In last year's round of cuts, an estimated 150 beds were cut from projects across Manchester.

Labour councillor Daniel Gillard, who led the inquiry, admitted that Manchester's homeless population is three times the estimate. Massive job losses, benefit sanctions, lack of social housing, and cuts to homeless prevention all contributed to the rapid increase in homelessness.

The number of evictions in greater Manchester is the highest since records began with 2,032 evictions last year alone. All this from a council entirely made up of Labour councillors! Manchester city council shows Labour's dedication to austerity and its anti-working class, pro-big business, neoliberal agenda.

But don't worry! Nick Clegg recently told Manchester it would receive £22 million out of the £115 million national pot, set aside to invest into making the city more 'cycle friendly'. So we can all cycle from our homes we've been evicted from, to the jobs we've lost, stopping off at the food bank on the way!

Labour Party careerists are unopposed in the city council, carrying out cuts with little regard for the people they claim to represent. That's why TUSC will be standing 27 candidates in Manchester in this May's elections.

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.