In Greater Manchester, despite solid progress being made on the regeneration agenda, housing supply has stubbornly lagged behind forecast need. Greater Manchester, is now setting itself the challenge of building over 10,000 new homes per annum. It currently only manages 4,000. Whilst this might not be described as a crisis – it is certainly a major issue.
The new combined authority will, over the next 2 years produce the first Greater Manchester Land Use Plan – or Spatial Framework since 1974 – one of the key issues for the plan, clearly will be housing supply.
It is a racing certainty that there will be divergent opinions on
where new homes should be built, there will be those who continue
to support high density housing in the City Centre and those who
believe now is the time to build more homes in the green belt or on
greenfield sites. Whilst both options potentially have their place
we think there is a 'third way' not being actively pursued
at the current time.
The third way would see far greater emphasis being placed on some
of Greater Manchester's unloved suburbs. Traditionally
neighbourhoods that supported a diverse housing mix and substantial
levels of family housing, sitting alongside small businesses and
local industrial estates, the burbs have become unpopular and under
invested. There is no better illustration of the point than a quick
visit to Levenshulme or Denton ( you could name another 20) where
the railway station is unsafe, unwelcoming and unpleasant. Contrast
this with those areas that have benefitted from investment in light
rail ( Metrolink) which has had a much more positive impact on
those areas it has touched. Not everywhere is Greater Manchester
will benefit from light rail, but funnily enough virtually every
one of the burbs has a traditional railway station.
Our third way recipe would therefore see more land made available
for housing, including sites previously thought more suitable for
industrial use, some proper investment in rail – both trains
and stations and a concerted effort to improve the local
neighbourhood centre. By focussing effort on the suburbs, we think
that a real impact on that 10,000 housing target could be achieved,
in the process we might also make our traditional neighbourhoods
worth living in again.
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