Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig has pledged £20m to revive struggling high streets and set a target of building 50,000 new homes.
Image: Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig
The plans, announced during her first two weeks in office, are among the first measures set out by the new mayor as she looks to tackle housing shortages and the decline of some town centres.
Bev Craig revealed she will be creating the £20m Good Growth High Streets Fund, which will open for applications later this year. Once active, business, community groups and voluntary organisations will be able to apply for funding.
Craig announced the decision during a visit to Middleton, where she met with residents and traders to discuss the future of the town centre.
‘Greater Manchester’s economy has grown significantly over the past decade, and this fund is about making that growth visible in our local communities,’ Craig said.
Just two days later, the mayor also unveiled plans to build 50,000 new council, social and affordable homes across the city region by 2039. Craig said she wants 10,000 of those homes to be either built or under construction by May 2028.
Image: Bev Craig during her 50,000 homes annoucement
A new board will oversee delivery across all boroughs, while public bodies will be asked to release land for development, prioritising disused and brownfield sites.
Manchester’s £2bn Good Growth Fund is already supporting housing projects, including a 35-home social rent scheme on brownfield land in Ashton-under-Lyne.
The scheme has received £2.7m from the Affordable Homes Programme and £700,000 from the region’s Brownfield Fund.
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester is also expected to receive £1.8bn through the government’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme. Craig is due to meet with ministers to discuss speeding up housing delivery.
Salford and Stockport are already building more social rent homes than are being lost through Right to Buy, with the rest of Greater Manchester expected to reach that point by 2027.
Craig said: ‘Nationally we face a housing crisis, with too many people trapped on housing waiting lists or living in poor sub-standard rented accommodation.
‘We’ve already started ramping up delivery. When I was Manchester Council Leader I built more council and social homes than Manchester had built in 25 years, but we need to go further and faster in every bit of Greater Manchester.’
‘Too many brownfield sites sit empty across Greater Manchester – so I will target them and set up a new Public Sector Land Bank that can be used for council, social and genuinely affordable homes,’ she continued. ‘We will be leading by example when it comes to freeing up disused and dormant public land for development and I’m calling on other government bodies to join us.’
Images: Bev Craig
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