Manchester is preparing for unemployment to rise by a third during the coronavirus crisis – as one council chief warned that the empty city centre looks like a ‘nuclear winter’.
Town hall leader Sir Richard Leese has reiterated that it could take years to come back from ‘the biggest crisis we’ve ever faced’.
There has already been a ‘massive’ increase in the number of people applying for Universal Credit, a meeting of the council’s executive has heard.
Work has already started on a recovery plan for the city’s economy which involves supporting the unemployed, and those who are likely to lose their jobs once the government’s furloughing scheme ends.