The July issue of the Manchester Monitor Quarterly includes a detailed feature on the latest results from the International Passenger Survey (IPS). The analysis shows that Greater Manchester (GM) attracts the third highest number of foreign visitors to the UK, behind only the capital cities of London and Edinburgh. In 2013 it attracted almost 1 million overseas visitors, who spent around £480 million in the GM economy.
Breaking this figure down in more detail, £127 million was generated by business visits and £97 million from holiday visits. The £480 million equates to growth of 10% on the 2012 spend figure of £396 million.
Download the full report HERE
The latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that around 55,800 people were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in GM in May 2014 – a decrease of 2,800 (4.8%) when compared with the figure for April. Overall, the number of JSA claimants in GM is 26,600 lower (32.3%) than 12 months ago. Around 3.2% of the resident working-age population in Greater Manchester were claiming JSA in May. This remains higher than in the North West (2.9%) and Great Britain (2.6%), mirroring the longer term trend of the conurbation having a higher JSA claimant rate – and highlighting an issue that GM still needs to tackle.
The jobs data for GM remain encouraging and this trend is evident across the rest of the UK. The number of people in employment across the UK grew by 345,000 to a record 30.5 million between February and April, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was the biggest increase since records began in 1971. ONS data also show that prices are rising faster than wages again. Average pay including bonuses grew by 0.7% in the three months to April, compared with 1.9% growth in the three months to March.
Land Registry data show that house prices are continuing to rise. While the rises are still fairly small outside London, this reverses the downward trend witnessed in the last few years. The average house in GM cost £106,000 in May 2014, an increase of 3.9% (£4,000) from this time last year. The rise is still below the increase in prices in England & Wales as a whole, where they grew by 6.7% (£10,800) on an annual basis to reach £172,000.
The latest figures in relation to assault attendances at each of GM’s eight hospital trusts’ local emergency departments show that there has been a year-on-year rise in the number of people being treated for assaults over the last twelve months. Baseline data for the 12 months ending April 2014 show that 12,900 people were treated for assault-related injuries over the last 12 months in GM hospitals, an increase of 1% on the figures from the previous year.
More positively for the crime data, GM Fire and Rescue Service data show that for the year ending 27 May 2014, deliberate fires in GM were recorded at 7,300. This compares to a figure of 8,725 for the previous year and represents an annual decline of 16.3% (1,400) in deliberate fires.