08/11/2017 North West Tonight

Newsnight is coming up on BBC Two.

Good evening.

There's been a big rise

in the number of homeless

people across the North West

according to a new study

by the housing charity Shelter.

It says homelessness has gone

up by 24% in a year.

Its figures show 9,350

people here are classed as

homeless.

Ten hot spots have been identified

from Manchester, which has the worst

problem to less expected

areas like South Ribble.

The statistics are based

on the numbers sleeping

on the streets living in hostels

and families staying in emergency

bed and breakfast accommodation.

More than a third of the region s

homeless people are in

Manchester where one in every

154 people is homeless.

Stuart Flinders reports.

Usman lives in the box. It is cosy

and safe but it is still a box and

he has to share it. It is not a very

big space but is it comfortable?

Yes. It is very nice.

Usman is a

refugee from Sudan who found his way

to this day centre.

We used to have

people sleeping outside the front

door and staff came to us one day

and said they have to do something

about this. There was a person from

a building company that offered to

put a poured in for us and we took

advantage of it. You see this train

is going up building flats but it is

unaffordable.

Why has there been an

increase in homelessness? Is it down

to a shortage of housing, benefit

cuts or a crisis in drink and drug

abuse? Every case is different.

The

key factors driving this is the lack

of affordable housing and welfare

benefit reforms. Cuts to the welfare

benefits system, bedroom tax,

benefit cuts and housing benefit

freeze for four years.

This man

turns up at a homeless centre in

Saltford at the right time. Oh

donation of winter coats has

arrived.

Thank you very much.

Originally from Angola, he is a

British citizen. He lost his flat

and a job as a delivery driver.

Where are you sleeping?

In the

streets. I collapsed at night and

was taken to hospital.

At least

Usman has somewhere to return to

tonight. For those that don't come

it will be a long winter.

The Government says it's determined

to tackle homelessness

investing 950 million pounds

by 2020 and introducing

the Homelessness Reduction Act.

That requires councils to provide

early support to people at risk.

Manchester has the most

homeless people in the

region.

I asked the Council's Deputy

Leader Bernard Priest

if that was embarrassing?

It is embarrassing but we have got

to understand why it is that

Manchester has this problem. We are

in the middle of an economic policy

driven by the government which is

forcing people into poverty. What

I'm not embarrassed about is the

response that Manchester City

Council and its many pounds --

partners have made to this growing

problem.

It is obviously not working

if you mark the worst in the

north-west. It doesn't seem to be

successful.

That is a logical

conclusion but it is based on an

understanding that people stay put.

People move around in the Northwest.

Manchester is a place where jobs are

concentrated and there is a council

that will support you. People

gravitate towards Manchester. We are

struggling.

Do you think you can

tackle it?

This is not going to be

one until the government understands

they are causing this problem.

A police investigation's under way

after a body was found

in a burning car on Cross Lane East

at Partington in Greater

Manchester this evening.

It's not known if it's

a man or a woman.

The family of a Merseyside man

who was stabbed to death

after a row with scrambler bike has

appealed for information

to help catch his killer.

29-year-old Adam Ellison was stabbed

in Prescot in the early hours

of last Saturday morning.

Please come forward and give

information. We need justice.

Little

information. Anything to get these

people. We are devastated.

We wanted

to get married. I would like

somebody, anybody that knows

anything to come forward.

Now to the Paradise papers.

Bought from a company. Brought from

a company based in Jersey. In both

places you can avoid playing --

paying taxes when you buy a

property.

It is deeply regrettable

and will end up being

disadvantageous to the ratepayer.

In

Sefton, all parties voted that the

purchase. Birchwood Park cost the

council £200 million.

Lots of

councils and beyond are looking at

investments in property which are

designed to help produce an income

which will take the pressure off

their budgets which are being

squeezed.

Buying a place like this

is like buying a house or flat. You

have to pay stamp duty. The council

bought the holding company but

because that is offshore, they

avoided paying £10 million in stamp

duty. It will have to pay that if

you brought this asset back on

shore. We'd be bringing this back on

the shore?

We will have that debate

and the executive board will make

another decision around the status

of the assets.

Why is it debate? You

would want to avoid paying tax.

I

understand part of that logic. The

council would have to raise council

tax to meet its stamp duty

liability.

Sefton Council has

confirmed whether it has paid stamp

duty but it has insisted in no way

has there been any avoidance of

tasks -- tax.

Ken Dodd is celebrating his

birthday. I spoke to him at

Liverpool's Theatre.

It is the Ken

Dodd show. Life has been a journey.

I have been blessed and got lost

once or twice. I am two people.

Kenneth of the Dodd from knotty Ash.

The one sitting here now and I am

Ken Dodd, the former.

Kenneth Arthur

Dodd has never moved. Why stay in

the same place?

I live in my

grandmother's house. My father used

to make my props for me and wrote my

first jokes. My mother said, "Kenny,

I don't care what you go, as long as

you were a clean shirts. " Why have

you had such longevity? I have been

very blessed.

The jokes still work.

I don't do dirty. I don't know how

to spell the words. You have

approximately 30 seconds to make

friends with the audience. You play

an audience likely play an

instrument. You know where the

hotspots are, when you can float. At

midnight tonight, your husband or

boyfriend or both of them.

Where is

your favourite theatre?

The one I am

playing tonight. Every show has to

be the best.

Many happy returns.

More congratulations on Liverpool as

the City Council awarded our

colleagues at BBC Radio Merseyside

the freedom of the city. Let's get

the

the freedom of the city. Let's get

the weather forecast. Good evening.

Lots of autumn sunshine today but it

was a cold start. We had to get over

that. The day turned out to be very

pleasant. Through this