MANCHESTER got a multi-million boost today after red-faced census officials admitted they got their sums wrong.

City MPs have been campaigning to recover the "missing millions" since the Office for National Statistics population estimates showed a dramatic decline.

This had a knock-on effect on city council grants and MPs claimed as much as £30 million over two years should be returned to the city.

Today the census office accepted their estimates were "too low" and Treasury ministers signalled a cash boost for the city of around £7.5 million and more again next year.

"The provisional 2001 population for the city of Manchester is 418,600 and that for 2002 is 422,300 - the number of people missed from the census is estimated at 24,500," admitted the ONS.

The news was welcomed by Blackley Labour MP Graham Stringer, a former city council leader, who called on the head of the census office, Len Cook, to resign.

I'm pleased that Cook and the government have finally recognised there was a mis-counting but I also think that when you've got a statistician who can't count he should be retired," said Mr Stringer.

"He has caused unnecessary stress and made it difficult to plan services for Manchester," added the MP.

And Withington Labour MP Keith Bradley, also welcomed the decision to revise the population estimates.

"I'm delighted that our campaign for re-assessment of population totals has been successful. The final implications will mean significant improvements and it is essential now that any grant we are owed because of previous understatement is now passed to the city," said Mr Bradley.


Manchester City Council said today the census officer had increased the city's current population by 29,500 from the 2001 estimate.

Councillor Richard Leeds, leader of the city council said today: "We have consistently argued that the 2001 Census outcome significantly under-estimated our population, which as a result seriously penalised the City in its allocation of Revenue Support Grant in 2003/4.

"I am delighted that the work which our officers have put into this over a prolonged period has made a major contribution to the exercise which persuaded the National Statistician to revise very significantly our estimate of population.

"I would also like to thank the Manchester MPs who have been steadfast in their support of our case. We can now look forward to working with Ministers to ensure that the £7.5 million grant lost to the City for this year is restored over the coming months.

"The other good news is that we can now look forward to the new population estimate informing Manchester's Revenue Support Grant Settlement for 2004/5, so that we are not penalised again," said Councillor Leese.

Chief Executive of Manchester City Council Sir Howard Bernstein added: "We have enjoyed several months of co-operative working with the Office of National Statistics, and we look forward to constructively working with them in the future."

When MPs and councillor protested about the population estimates the ONS began a study of the figures for Manchester. They now admit that when they compared the address list collected by their officials with the administrative address lists held by the city council, and used for council tax calculations, there were 14,000 addresses missing.

"Although there are some uncertainties associated with the estimate of people missed, the evidence is that the census estimated, and hence the mid-year population estimates for 2001 and 2002 are too low.

"Therefore the population estimates for Manchester have been amended and labelled as provisional to reflect the uncertainties," say the ONS.