SHADOW Chancellor Anneliese Dodds visited Radcliffe this week where she met traders and spoke about household finances as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

She was joined by the leader of Bury Council, Cllr Eamonn O’Brien.

Ms Dodds warned that the government risk slowing Britain’s recovery by forcing people to tighten their belts.

They spoke about Bury Council’s plans to regenerate the town centres in the borough, building on successes such as Radcliffe Market Hall.

Ms Dodds, said: “Instead of protecting Bury’s families during a pandemic the government hit them with a quadruple hammer blow to their pockets that will leave them over £1,000 worse off next year.

“That’s not just wrong – it’s economically illiterate. If families have less money to spend, then businesses will suffer and the recovery will take longer.”

Bury Council Leader Eamonn O’Brien said: “The government broke their promise to councils that we would get all the funding we needed in the wake of the coronavirus.

“Instead, we’ve been left with a budget gap of over £40m in Bury.

“Not only will local services face even more cuts to pay for this, but the Tory council tax bombshell is forcing residents to pay more and get less in return.

“After all that our key workers and public services have done over the past year, they deserve better than this from the Tories.

“In Bury, we have committed to paying all our staff the Real Living Wage.

“This will give a boost to our frontline care workers, many of them women, and help our local economy recover. “