Ten Greater Manchester authorities consult on region-wide development plan

Leaders of Greater Manchester’s ten councils have launched a consultation on a region-wide development plan.

The plan, believed to be the first attempted on this scale, is designed on the assumption that Greater Manchester is a single labour market with interdependent towns and cities using its transport, culture, education and public services.

It also reflects Greater Manchester’s role as a regional capital providing employment beyond its boundary.

The consultation is intended to test the evidence base prepared for a proposed statutory joint Development Plan Document for the next 20 years, that would give the region an overarching plan within which the ten councils will make land available to deliver its strategic objectives. The plan is due for completion in 2017.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council chief executive Eamonn Boylan, who leads on planning and housing for the authorities, said: “We need to use this evidence to underpin a strategic discussion on how we manage our land supply to meet our aspirations for housing and employment growth, [going] beyond the numbers game to discuss the sort of housing we need, and how that housing will help Greater Manchester keep and attract the skilled people we will need and the businesses which will provide future jobs.”

Council leaders have also agreed to set up a housing delivery agency for the region to deal with management of public sector land and negotiations with government over funding. It may eventually develop homes in its own right.

The councils involved are: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan,