New drive to regenerate town centres across Greater Manchester launched by Mayor Andy Burnham

The Town Centre Challenge invites all councils across Greater Manchester to nominate a town to be part of the initiative and work with the mayor to bring together housing providers, public and private landowners, developers, community groups and other key stakeholders in an effort to unlock the potential in town centres, particularly to deliver viable housing markets and sustainable communities.

The initiative will be supported by new mayoral powers to establish Mayoral Development Corporations, the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) and mayoral grants to kick-start developments.

It is hoped that it will be supported by a new housing deal that is under discussion between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Government.

Mr Burnham said: “The time has come to breathe new life into our proud towns and move away from developer-led, green-field first approach of the past.

“We need to build a new future for those towns through higher density mixed and affordable housing, with local retail and leisure facilities and supported by transport and digital connectivity.

“There is a massive housing requirement across the city-region and we must have a housing and planning policy which is based on housing need and regeneration, not just the number of units.”

He added that Greater Manchester is suffering from high levels of traffic congestion which means new housing growth can only be supported if it is linked more closely to transport infrastructure.

Mr Burnham added: “This is part of the approach we are taking as we are rewriting the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework. This new approach will not mean that there won’t still be difficult planning decisions ahead and some green sites will still be needed.”