Economy on the up as crime falls

A significant drop in victims of crime has taken place since autumn 2009 – a reduction of almost 25% across Greater Manchester. 

There are signs of a strengthening economy with job openings increasing by almost a quarter year-on-year and almost half of Greater Manchester’s businesses reporting higher levels of activity in the second quarter of the year.

The latest data available for Greater Manchester also shows:

• Jobseeker numbers fell for the sixth month in a row, with 76,700 currently claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA).
• 39% of Greater Manchester’s firms are expecting business to activity to pick up even further in Q3 of 2013.
• The average house price fell again to £102,000 (by 1.9%) compared with this time last year.
• Manchester city centre achieved its highest hotel occupancy figure to date for the month of August 2013 – recorded at 77%.

Baron Frankal, director of economic strategy at New Economy, said: “The Greater Manchester economy continues to show cautious but consistent signs of stabilisation and growth.

“One of the more interesting trends the Monitor highlights, is that even during these recent times of severe economic turbulence, Greater Manchester has seen something of a remarkable drop in crime, along with most other parts of the UK.

“Strangely though, whilst crime figures have dropped by around a quarter, incident reporting to the police has not. This raises several questions about why this is the case. The general consensus seems to be that an ever-wider number of issues are being reported to the police.

“Across the broader economy, business confidence continues to be on the up, and jobseekers allowance claimants on the down – although the jobless figures are still very much of a volume to cause concern. The late summer weather continues to buoy both retail optimism but it will be many months yet before we can say whether the green shoots we are now firmly seeing are sufficiently resilient to last through a cold winter.”