Manchester Council to follow Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs example and let homeless people stay in empty buildings

The council wants to increase shelters so that ‘no one’ has to sleep outside during winter

The temperature was below freezing in many parts of the country this week (Getty)

Manchester Council is following in the footsteps of footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs with a plan to open empty buildings to homeless people.

Neville and Giggs were commended for letting homeless people continue to occupy Manchester’s historic Stock Exchange, which they are understood to have purchased for £1.5 million, until work begins to turn it into a hotel in February.

Manchester Council is now looking at vacant buildings throughout the city to see if they can be used to shelter homeless people during the winter months.

Council sources told the Manchester Evening News that it is looking to open viable buildings as shelters as soon as possible.

Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs (GETTY IMAGES)

The move was included in a report looking at ways to tackle the escalating levels of homelessness throughout the city, where numbers of rough sleepers have risen sharply since 2010.

A spokesperson for the council told The Independent officers are looking at opening up buildings to people on the streets as part of a range of actions to help the homeless in Manchester.

Councillor Paul Andrews, Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing for Manchester City Council, said: “A team of officers from across the council are actively looking at potential buildings to increase capacity for evening and overnight accommodation so that no one has to sleep outside during winter months.

“This includes a survey of council-owned buildings which might be appropriate for this purpose and we will be working with our voluntary and community sector partners to develop this offer and ensure that such accommodation is safe, well managed and effective. We are also exploring potential opportunities to work with private sector building owners. Buildings will be opened as soon as reasonably possible.“

The Stock Exchange building was occupied by squatters and activists from the Manchester Angels group on Sunday. Wesley Hall, an activist with the group, said he was contacted by Neville to say everyone could stay.

“What a great guy Gary Neville is,” he said. “We’ve been in negotiations with him and things are looking good. He said the main building work isn’t taking place until February, so we’ll be okay to stay until then."