More than one in four children in Greater Manchester still grows up in poverty, a figure that will confront the region's new mayor when they take office on Friday. That represents nearly 169,000 children under 16 living in poverty across the city region in the year ending April 2025, before housing costs are taken into account — 28 per cent of all children.
Child poverty hotspots
In Coldhurst, Oldham, child poverty is among the highest in Britain, with 2,550 children in the ward living in poverty during the 2024/25 financial year — 57 per cent. That rate is the highest in Greater Manchester and joint 18th highest in Great Britain, though it improved by two per cent from the previous year. High rates are also concentrated in parts of Rochdale and Bolton.
The total number of children in poverty is slightly lower than the previous year, when just under 169,000 were below the breadline, but the proportion remains unchanged.
Mayoral responsibilities
While child poverty is not something the mayor can solve alone, mayors increasingly shape factors that influence family poverty: transport costs, housing, employment opportunities, skills, regeneration and access to affordable childcare through wider economic policy. Under Andy Burnham's plans for a more devolved Britain, some of those levers are likely to be placed in the hands of an incoming mayor.
The next mayor will be expected to tackle homelessness, improve public transport, unlock thousands of new homes, attract investment, reduce inequality and convince residents that prosperity is reaching every corner of the city region. They will do this after one of the closest mayoral elections Greater Manchester has yet seen, with Labour's Bev Craig and Reform UK's Sian Astley leading the race and a second round of counting expected for the first time under the Supplementary Vote system.
Housing crisis
Housing is a key issue for the new mayor. Reform UK candidate Sian Astley has been helping an abuse survivor who was placed in a flat described as “worse than a pigsty”. Annie — not her real name — said she endured a range of issues with the property, which she was told had been “condemned”. Manchester council apologised and said Annie should never have been placed there. Deputy council leader Tracey Rawlins said the case was an exception but that “significant lessons have been learned”.
Britain's oldest cleaner?
Nora Jones, 85, works as a cleaner at the Waggon & Horses pub in Gorton, where she has worked for the last 45 years. She says she has never called in sick in more than four decades. The great-grandmother is thought to be one of, if not the, oldest pub cleaner in Britain. She has a picture of her late husband Ernst on the wall and says: “My friends and family know better than to ask when I might give up work.”
Weather and travel
Thursday: Sunny intervals, 20C. Road closures: A671 Rochdale Road, Royton, northbound closed for roadworks from Middleton Road to Market Square until January 29. A58 Gerard Street Westbound, Ashton-in-Makerfield closed due to roadworks from A5062 Wigan Road to A58/A49 (Kings Arms traffic lights) until November 22.
