黑洞社区

The front runner to become the first mayor of Greater Manchester has pledged to switch the new combined authority鈥檚 housing budget from incentivising luxury city centre developments to affordable schemes in the conurbation鈥檚 outer boroughs.

Andy Burnham (pictured), who was selected to become Labour鈥檚 candidate for the first directly elected mayoralty of the Greater Manchester combined authority last month, told the built environment reception at the party鈥檚 annual conference in Liverpool that he wanted to overhaul how its housing budget is targeted.

He told the reception the 拢300m per annum budget was currently focused on 鈥渉igh end, luxury developments鈥� in Manchester city centre. 鈥淚 want that to be refocused on the outlying towns. I want to bring social housing and affordable housing back into those town centres so that we can bring life back in.鈥�

Burnham said that while central Manchester and Salford had seen an 鈥渆normous transformation鈥� over the past 20 years, there was a big division with the neglected outlying towns, particularly in the north of the conurbation.

He said: 鈥淭here are areas that have had that kind of regeneration and then there is a sweep of towns across the north of Great Manchester that don鈥檛 feel they have shared in that process of change.

鈥淲e have had to reassess the idea from the mid 90s that if you regenerate a city centre you will also lift up everywhere else around it. You can have a gleaming city centre and within a mile鈥檚 walk you can see some pretty serious dereliction.

鈥淲e have had the incredible progress around city centre. The next 20 years has to be about the whole of Greater Manchester.鈥�

Burnham added that the majority vote to leave the European Union in Greater Manchester鈥檚 outlying towns had partly been fuelled by the perceived sense of neglect in those places.

He said the regeneration of these outlying town centres would involve a rethinking of their functions, including whether they needed as much retail space and more green space.

The Leigh MP also said there needed to be a fresh look at listing regulations, which he said could be a barrier to the regeneration of Greater Manchester鈥檚 rich stock of historic industrial buildings. 

He also told the reception that building the High Speed 3 rail route, which is intended to improve journey times between the north of England鈥檚 major cities, was the country鈥檚 鈥渉ighest transport investment priority, higher than Crossrail 2 and even higher than High Speed 2.鈥�

The reception was held by the RICS, RIBA and the Chartered Institute of 黑洞社区.