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Greater Manchester to publish housing proposals as part of new nine-council masterplan
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) will unveil new housing plans for the city region this month as part of a joint masterplan, which will also cover jobs and infrastructure.
The framework, named Places for Everyone, will replace the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF), which was voted down by Stockport Council in December 2020 amid controversy over its impact on the green belt.
Places for Everyone, which according to the GMCA reduces green belt loss by 60% compared with the GMSF’s original 2016 draft, has the backing of the remaining nine councils while Stockport must draw up its own local plan.
The city region framework will be scrutinised by councillors representing the nine remaining boroughs – Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside, Wigan, Bolton and Bury – at a joint committee meeting on Tuesday 20 July.
It will then go out to public consultation between August and October.
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While the masterplan is yet to be published, documents made available ahead of the meeting said that provision is being made to develop 165,000 homes between now and 2037.
The papers said that because of revisions to the local housing need formula made late last year, Manchester City Council’s target would rise by 914 homes a year over the plan’s lifetime, while other boroughs remained mostly unchanged.
The GMCA said 90% of new homes will be within urban areas, with development aimed at maximising the use of brownfield land – for which the city region has already committed £97m of government funds.
The original 2016 GMSF planned for 227,000 homes, which had been revised down to 180,000 by the time of the framework’s demise.
The committee papers said the new plan would support Greater Manchester’s commitment to deliver 50,000 affordable homes, including 30,000 for social or affordable rent, during its 16-year span.
Announcing the new masterplan, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: “Work is well under way to transform our urban centres by delivering good-quality homes, sustainable public transport and regeneration of the kind that will genuinely ‘level up’ our places.”
He added: “By building more low-carbon homes and equipping people with new retrofitting skills, we can also help to meet our goal of carbon neutrality by 2038 and lay the foundations for investment in green industry and innovation.”
In May, Mr Burnham announced proposals to build 30,000 zero-carbon homes for social rent as part of a new homelessness prevention strategy.
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