What the council has to say

COUN Sue Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester city council, said: “Over the past few years Manchester city council has had to deal with an unprecedented increase in the number of people who present to us as homeless.

“Each day we are seeing more than 100 people present to us as homeless which is placing greater pressure than ever before on our homelessness team. We will always fulfil our duty to support the people of Manchester and our teams are rising to meet new challenges.

“However, we urgently need a review of the welfare system so that people, including those who are working are able to meet their housing costs. We need to end no-fault evictions (Section 21s), coupled with the implementation of rules which guarantee a minimum three year tenancy. This would stem the rising tide of homelessness which we see in the city.

“Finding suitable housing for people remains an ongoing process for the council, and our team of officers are vigilant in identifying and inspecting any properties which fall short of the standards we expect from housing providers. Any property which is unsafe is taken out of circulation until its owners can make repairs. We will not be complacent and will always try to improve.

“The increase in numbers of people presenting mean that we aren’t always able to house people within Manchester. It is far from ideal and wherever possible we will keep people as close to home as possible. But in some circumstances we have had to house people across Greater Manchester. However, we try to limit this to as small a time as possible.”

The M.E.N. asked the government to comment for this article but no response was received.