An Open Letter to the Candidates for the Greater Manchester Mayoral By-Election
Ahead of the Greater Manchester Mayoral By-Election on Thursday 30 July, local Citizens Advice charities across all ten boroughs have come together to publish an open letter to the candidates.
To the Candidates for the Greater Manchester Mayoral By-Election,
As leaders of Local Citizens Advice services across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester, we see first-hand the immense pressure local people are under. Every day, our teams help residents find a way forward through tough times. Because we are rooted in local communities, we spot issues early- like rising demand for food banks, issues around temporary accommodation, or residents cut off due to digital exclusion- before they show up in official statistics.
While a crisis used to be a one-off event, Citizens Advice research shows it has become the new normal for millions who simply cannot afford their essentials. Our local insight acts as a vital early warning system for the region.
We know that if elected on July 30, your priority will be delivering real, practical improvements to health, housing, and financial security. Reliable independent advice is a vital asset in reaching those goals. We see this in practice every day: for every £1 invested in our advice services, we secure £13.48 in financial value for the people we support. By resolving these household crises early, we can prevent a much wider, more expensive strain on our public services.
The Greater Manchester Strategy sets out a powerful vision to build a thriving city-region where everyone can live a good life. Achieving this is a shared effort, built on the strong partnerships between our public services, businesses, local charities, and independent organisations across all ten boroughs. To support the Combined Authority in tackling inequality during this next mayoral term, we bring our data, our insights, and our role as a trusted strategic partner.
To achieve this together, we want to share three practical areas where we can immediately deepen our partnership:
Work Together to Connect Advice with Local Health Teams
We know that resolving money, debt, and housing issues is one of the most effective ways to look after people's health. Across Greater Manchester, our advice services are working closely with community health teams and the Live Well movement to help residents build long-term stability. We want to build on this excellent work alongside local health leaders. By ensuring that independent advice remains a core part of local neighbourhood teams, we can catch problems early- keeping people well, preventing household crises, and freeing up busy GPs to focus on medical care.
Build a Preventative Infrastructure to Stop Crises Early
A truly resilient region relies on a strong, stable advice sector that can catch problems before they become crises. Moving away from short-term, fragmented funding models allows the independent advice sector across Greater Manchester to focus its full capacity on preventing long-term hardship. We want to work alongside the next Mayor to explore how regional planning can offer more multi-year stability for these vital advice networks. By working together to protect this preventative infrastructure, we can help stop deep household debt and housing evictions before they happen, ensuring a stable foundation where communities can thrive.
Use Frontline Insights to Inform Regional Policy
Our advice networks support tens of thousands of people every year, creating a rich, real-time picture of what is happening across our communities. We want to work with the next Mayor to ensure this frontline insight is consistently used to inform regional policy. By sharing these grounded, everyday insights, we can provide the Combined Authority with a vital testing space to check what is working, help shape effective policy, and deliver the best possible results for the region.
We look forward to working in partnership with Greater Manchester’s next Mayor to build a more resilient city-region and ensure every resident has the foundation to live well.
Signed on behalf of Citizens Advice across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester:
Citizens Advice Salford
Citizens Advice Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale & Trafford (SORT Group)
Citizens Advice Manchester
Citizens Advice Bury & Bolton
Citizens Advice Tameside
Citizens Advice Wigan
-Ends
Press contact:
Hayley Wright
Policy and Communications Manager
hayley.wright@casort.org