Greater Manchester borough claims it is has not flood 'crisis relief' and is asking: 'Why not?'
Stockport council has made a plea to the government for 'urgently-needed resources', claiming funds to help with the clean-up in the wake of new year flooding hasn't come through.
A major incident was declared - with more than 1,000 people rescued across Greater Manchester - following torrential rainfall. Stockport was one of the worst-hit areas.
Around 400 people were forced to leave Meadow Mill in the town centre after the River Goyt burst its bank and flooded the car park and lower floors. Water and power supplies were cut off. Businesses at the industrial estate behind the flats suffered extensive damage.
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The A555 Manchester Airport Relief Road was left submerged for days, while properties in Cheadle, Bramhall and other areas of the borough were also damaged. Stockport council said some of those properties 'won't be habitable again for months'.
Town hall chiefs have now queried why financial support has not come through. The council's cabinet member for finance, Coun Jilly Julian, said the Flood Recovery Framework has not been activated for the area.
Established in 2017, it is a central government scheme to support households and businesses in cases of severe flooding. But the council says its provisions have not been triggered, as it was in as it was in 2019, 2023 and 2024.
"Without that decision, and the funding it makes available, councils simply cannot afford to provide badly needed relief," Coun Julian said in an open letter to Emma Hardy MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Water and Flooding.
"However, despite the widespread devastation across our borough, we have received no correspondence from central Government as to why this support has not been triggered.
"Therefore, on behalf of the residents and businesses of Stockport, I believe it's imperative to make two asks of you and your Government. Firstly, I'm keen to know why you chose not to activate the Flood Recovery Framework following the 1st of January 2025, and provide much needed crisis relief in an already challenging financial climate.
"Secondly, in the absence of this funding, will you provide urgently needed resources to help those residents and businesses who are in dire need of central government financial support?"
The government said it has set out plans for a new 'strategic vison for flood investment'. A consultation will be launched 'in due course', it added, which will 'will include a review of the existing formula to ensure that the challenges facing businesses and rural and coastal communities are adequately taken into account when delivering flood protection'.
A new Floods Resilience Taskforce has also been set up with the first meeting chaired last September. A government spokesperson said: "Our thoughts are with all those whose homes and businesses have been affected by the recent flooding, including those in Stockport.
"We pay tribute to the emergency services and first responders across the country for their continuous and dedicated work to keep communities safe. There is much more work needed to be done to protect homes which is why we are investing £2.4bn to build and maintain flood defences, which will help protect homes and businesses across the country."
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Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Cost of President Trump's tariffs hits home, as several consumer goods and services surge to record highs
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This tracker is updated monthly using CPI data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor prices dropped for a second straight month in May, falling 57 cents from March's record high. According to the latest data, the average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs is $4.55 nationwide — tumbling below the $5 mark for the first time since January. The decline in egg prices is likely due to a decrease in bird flu cases in commercial and backyard flocks since the start of the year. In the first two months of 2025, 12.6 to 23.2 million birds were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In March, that number was 2.1 million, and as of April, the virus was detected in only 1 million U.S. birds. Though still significantly lower than the number reported in January and February, cases surged again in May, with 5.2 million birds affected — the vast majority concentrated in three commercial flocks in Arizona. 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That price is slightly lower than it was when Trump started his second term and about 10 cents less than it was 12 months ago. Shoppers can expect to pay more for their next bunch of bananas. The staple fruit cost a record-breaking $0.66 per pound in May. The price jumped 2 cents compared with April — the single-biggest month-over-month increase going back to January 2021. This sudden spike is likely due to Trump's trade war, with tariffs levied against the country's top banana importers like Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico. Orange prices are up 5% from the previous month. This change, however, likely has little to do with the current administration. Like many citrus fruits, the cost of oranges is heavily tied to the harvesting season. As we exit orange season, supplies will decrease, coinciding with an increase in demand, thus triggering higher prices. 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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Student Loan Update: Court Documents Reveal Details of Trump Admin Plans
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Why It Matters The potential transfer of the federal student loan portfolio, which affects more than 42 million Americans, has significant implications for borrowers, government oversight and loan servicing standards. With student loan delinquency on the rise and millions of Americans seeing their credit scores hit record lows, the debate over who manages repayment, collections, and borrower protections has reached a new urgency. Court intervention has preserved the Department of Education's central role for now, but ongoing legal and policy battles could reshape loan management for years. President Donald Trump speaks at a roundtable event at the White House on June 9, 2025. President Donald Trump speaks at a roundtable event at the White House on June 9, To Know Under the Trump administration, the Department of Education had been negotiating a memorandum of understanding with the Treasury Department to review student loan management and collections operations, Rachel Oglesby, chief of staff at the agency, confirmed in a late Tuesday court filing. Nine Education Department employees were set to move from the Federal Student Aid Default Collections Unit to the Treasury to "discuss collections activities," the Education Department confirmed to Newsweek. Those plans were halted after U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston ruled last month, ordering the rehiring of more than 1,300 Education Department employees affected by mass layoffs in March and blocking the transfer of loan management to the Small Business Administration (SBA). 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As policy debates continue, the end of the pandemic-era federal loan payment pause contributed to a surge in late payments and defaults. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that nearly six million borrowers were 90 or more days delinquent or in default between January and March 2025, with many experiencing steep drops in credit scores. These credit impacts may hinder access to mortgages, car loans and other financial products. What People Are Saying Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, told Newsweek: "The Department of Education signed an Interagency Agreement with the Department of Labor on May 21 regarding administration of certain career, technical, and adult education grants. The Workforce Development Partnership will allow ED and DOL to better coordinate and deliver on workforce development programs and strengthen federal support for our nation's workforce, a top priority of the Trump Administration. 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Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek: "The proposal for the Treasury to take over the federal administrative responsibilities for student loans is no surprise, as this was a change largely discussed when the administration started ramping up its planning to shutter parts of the Department of Education. For student loan borrowers, if the plan was ever to take effect, it would more than likely not mark a substantial change to their current payment plans." What Happens Next The status of federal student loan management—and who ultimately oversees the $1.6 trillion portfolio—remains unresolved pending further court action and any potential congressional intervention. "It would just be the shift from one department overseeing the debt to another. At the same time, this proposal becoming a reality is something that may increasingly not occur," Beene said. "Disbanding and relocating aspects of the Department of Education would require congressional involvement, and there's already signs of hesitation to supporting such." Borrowers are advised to continue routine payments as legal and policy outcomes develop.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
GOP tax bill could cost low-income Americans $1,600 per year, CBO says
The Republicans' "big beautiful" budget package is aimed at ushering in "a new golden age in America" through a combination of tax and spending cuts, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. But a new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the bill may prove less golden for some Americans. The lowest-earning 10% of U.S. households are likely to see their financial resources reduced by $1,600 per year, or almost 4% of their annual income, according to the June 12 CBO report. The analysis, which tallies the impact of the bill's tax breaks, reductions in funding for federal programs and changes in matching state funds, notes that the proposed legislation would reduce resources for low-income Americans because of cuts to Medicaid and food stamps. The CBO found the bill would boost the government resources going to the highest-earning 10% of U.S. households by $12,000 per year, while middle-income households would see a gain of $500 to $1,000. The agency estimated that, on average, "household resources would increase over the 2026–2034 period, mainly because of reductions in how much households owed in federal taxes," CBO said. But those changes would not be evenly distributed the agency said. "The agency estimates that in general, resources would decrease for households toward the bottom of the income distribution, whereas resources would increase for households in the middle and top of the income distribution," the CBO report noted. President Trump has urged lawmakers to support the Republican budget measure. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the Trump administration's economic policies, saying they will benefit working class Americans. "Democrats and the media unquestioningly ran with CBO's gloomy scoring of President Trump's tax cuts during his first term — tax cuts that helped usher in the first decline in wealth inequality in decades," Desai said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. "President Trump's America First economic agenda unleashed historic job, wage, and economic growth for working-class Americans in his first term, and this agenda will repeat the success in his second term." The analysis could fuel criticism from some congressional Democrats and advocates for low-income Americans that the proposed legislation could hurt the most vulnerable households by stripping away Medicaid and other benefits, while providing the richest Americans with generous tax cuts. "As the nonpartisan [Congressional Budget Office] just confirmed to me, Trump's budget bill will make it harder for working Americans to make ends meet while sending thousands to the ultra-rich," said Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, on social media. Boyle, who with House minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries asked the CBO for the analysis, added, "Republicans are stealing hard-earned money from working people to enrich billionaires." Previous analyses from nonpartisan think tanks such as the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a University of Pennsylvania research group that analyzes the fiscal impact of public policies, have come to similar conclusions about the bill's impact. Penn Wharton forecasts that the bottom 20% of U.S. households would lose $1,035 in 2026, while the top 0.1% of income earners would get an after-tax boost of $389,000 due to the bill's provisions. A Thursday analysis of the CBO report by the Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, concluded that the bottom 10% of U.S. households would see an average decrease of more than 6.5% in incomes under the GOP budget bill, while high-income earners would get a boost of 1.5%.
