The Mancunian Way: No room at the inn

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Manchester is in the grip of a student housing crisis. Freshers at both of the city’s universities have been offered money to live in accommodation in other cities - Liverpool, Preston and Huddersfield - due to shortages here.

The University of Manchester has offered students £2,500, along with £100 per week travel expenses, to free up around 350 rooms. Just under 200 have taken up the offer.

Meanwhile students at Manchester Metropolitan University have been offered £100 a week to take up rooms in Huddersfield and Liverpool - a 'temporary' option while staff work to accommodate students here.

Nicole Wootton-Cane has been talking to those affected, including Elspeth McIntyre, from Liverpool, who was asked if she’d consider giving up her room in Manchester for cash. She’s since been offered a room in Fallowfield and says she feels 'lucky’. "I'm going to get great life experience and live with like-minded people. If I didn't have an offer for accommodation right now I'd be very, very anxious."

So what’s behind it? Universities typically make more offers than they have places, but post-pandemic ‘grade inflation' remains high and more achieved the required A Level grades for their first choice universities. MMU is also thought to have experienced greater demand in clearing than expected.

With Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng due to deliver a mini-Budget on Friday, The Mirror’s Dan Bloom and Ashley Cowburn have been looking at what it could mean.

It will focus on the tax cuts the Prime