Craig to create GM High Streets Taskforce
Armed with the soon-to-be-launched £20m Good Growth High Streets Fund, the collective will help drive Greater Manchester’s approach to revitalising town and city centres.
Mayor Bev Craig announced the taskforce and the £20m fund in Middleton on Monday. She is actively seeking members for the group, with those interested in joining asked to email [email protected].
“I want my high streets taskforce to set the policy around not just how the fund is used, but how Greater Manchester and local councils approach actually breathing life back into the high streets,” Craig said.
“I want local traders, I want business experts, I want people that have done it in places before, or people that are just passionate about where they live to come forward to apply to be part of the task force.”
She added that this is a real opportunity to make an impact.
“I’m not a fan of just inviting people in for a meeting to have a chat,” Craig said. “They’ll actually drive forward over the course of the autumn what our policy will be and have a chance to influence government too.”
A mayoral election campaign promise, the £20m Good Growth High Streets Fund is due to officially launch towards the end of September. At that time, local businesses and community groups will be eligible to apply for financial support to drive change in their high street – whether that’s beautifying shop fronts, creating start-up incubators, events, or another concept completely.
Craig said that the fund will be about experimenting with ideas from local traders and independents – putting “a bit of power in their hands” to help their high streets.
Money for the fund will come from the £2bn GMCA Good Growth Fund, itself supported by the combined authority’s integrated settlement with national government, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, borrowing against future growth in retained business rates, and the National Wealth Fund.
Mark Robinson, director of economy and place at Rochdale Council, welcomed the Mayor’s taskforce move.
“There are lot of towns in Greater Manchester that all face similar challenges, face similar issues, and there are businesses in those areas that all have the same challenges,” he said. “I think bringing those businesses together in some sort of taskforce is a good initiative to share best practice, share ideas.”
On Monday morning, Middleton’s high street was active with people popping into shops, enjoying cafes, and just soaking up the sunshine in the Middleton Gardens event space outside the Middleton Shopping Centre.
But there was a continual refrain as the Mayor made her way around the town – “what about the post office?”
The post office in the town has closed, as have all of the banks. It’s a basic business need and something very much on the hearts of Middleton residents.
Craig was quick to tell residents that she was committed to bringing a post office back to the town centre.
It’s a promise that may soon be fulfilled, according to Jon-Paul Hardman, asset manager at IM Group. IM Group is the asset manager for AG Retail, which acquired the Middleton Shopping Centre at the end of June. Hardman told Craig that discussions were ongoing about moving the post office into a vacant unit at the retail complex.
Hardman told Place North West he was supportive of Craig’s High Streets Fund, especially if it would help Middleton.
“We support any type of bid in Middleton at the moment to improve the conditions for local business owners – they’re critical to the local economy,” he said.
He also emphasised the importance of the high street to the town, based on the footfall at the shopping centre.
“Middleton doesn’t yet have a viable tram set up, so it’s 50,000 local population and 77,000 people come through these doors every week, so that tells me that this is a critical part of the infrastructure of Middleton,” he said.
“It’s very much the heart of Middleton and anything we can do to improve that or lend our support to we certainly will.”
Hannah Harkis, an associate urban designer at LDA Design, has been working with Rochdale Council on its strategy for high streets. The consultancy led the development of the local authority’s masterplan for Middleton town centre in 2023, alongside Civic Engineers and Aspinall Verdi.
She pointed out that Middleton has plenty of features worth celebrating, including a series of heritage buildings.
Driving footfall, she pointed out, is more than just an economic play – it means less anti-social behaviour due to the natural surveillance of having lots of people around. People also take ownership of the space more if they have a reason for civic pride.
“High streets are the lifeblood of community,” she said. “They’re people-focussed places.”
Rochdale Cllr June West, chair of Middleton Township, also emphasised the high street’s importance to the town and their communal nature.
“It’s bringing the community together,” she said. In Middleton, that means markets and events, such as the upcoming Oktoberfest celebration – due to make a comeback this year for the first time since Covid.
Cllr Dylan Williams, portfolio holder for highways and facilities, echoed West’s sentiments.
“It’s really good Bev come here today and that she’s chosen Middleton to launch the High Streets Fund,” Williams said.
“It’s the beating heart of the town and it’s really important for local business,” he said.
While Middleton may have had a boost in 2012 to its high street – in the form of a series of public realm improvements – there is still lots more work to be done, according to Williams and West.
Part of that will come from the mayoral development corporation, which is co-chaired by Rose Marley and Steve Coogan. The MDC is still emerging, following a series of consultation exercises – the results of which are due to be publicised in the coming weeks, according to Rochdale Council.
The MDC’s focus will be on providing long-term growth for Middleton, whereas the Good Growth High Streets Fund would focus on incentivising footfall in the immediate future.
Middleton is not a shoo-in for any of the Good Growth High Streets Fund cash, according to the GMCA.
However, it is a prime example of the problems facing similar towns – high streets that need help and investment to make them more than just a collection of vape, pawn, and betting shops with a nail bar and empty storefront sprinkled in between.
“This is the story of most high streets and town centres – not just across Greater Manchester, but across Britain,” Craig said.
It is a problem Prime Minister Andy Burnham also addressed on Monday, with a series of changes proposed announced to help improve high streets. These include requiring vape shops and adult gaming centres to have planning permission to open, providing more power for councils to reject betting shops by getting rid of the “aim to permit” rule, and giving councils more authority to extend closure orders for shops selling illegal tobacco.
How about all the vape shops in Cheetham hill, is she going to fix that at some point?
By Anonymous
Throwing some crumbs to the towns surrounding Manchester.
By Anonymous
Hopefully part of this will involve tackling the crime-associated vape and barber shops, a true eyesore bringing down the whole experience of the high street and make the surroundings look cheap and neglected.
By Anonymous
As long as people use the likes of Amazon to do their online shopping the High Street will continue to decline. I don’t see a task force or throwing money at this issue is going to change the trend in the way people do their shopping.
By Anonymous
Rochdale needs a lot of help there is’nt a butchers in the town center and theres a lot of empty shops not even a proper market
By Anonymous
Sell vape from Amazon online it simple BUT it will be banned near the future. And vape shop fire in Glasgow which is risk just think about that one. 👍🏻
By G J Kitchener
This is so old hat. The revival of high streets only works,if there are people with the resources to make them thrive. Altrincham, Uppermill, Didsbury, Sale etc are successful because people can afford the prices in these areas, :so revitalising the rundown places requires a complete change in the demographic of those areas. The facilities are poor because the people are poor. An Everyman cinema for instance is not going to open in Droylsden anytime soon, nor will M and S open a Foodhall, in Harpurhey. Craig should start by sorting out the grotty public realm in these areas, the litter strewn grass verges, the lack of pride. She needs to take a walk around the backstreets of Moston and Harpurhey, which look like they haven’t been cleaned since the 70s.
By Elephant
We need menswear shop.
By George Robinson
Good observations from Elephant.
I would add that most places have an excess of “retail” space, much greater than any demand to occupy that space. This includes space in town centres, neighbourhood centres, and estate related “retail”.
Dealing with our High Streets is a multi faceted challenge but unless there is a plan to take “retail” space out the future of many places is going to be dependent on the economic wealth of the surrounding communities and their willingness to spend their hard earned money in the locality.
By Anonymous
Should look at Moston lane no proper shops just hairdressers mainly and fast food places. It looks so scruffy. I remember it was many years ago a thriving hub for all the community.
By Anonymous
How about incentivising the anchor stores to stay on the high street by reducing their business rates and in tandem limiting the ability of landlords to replace rates cuts with rent increases. Retaining the houshold names of achor stores helps retain other independants and any business rate reductions could therefoere be recouped.
By Roberto
As others have stated, demographics are the primary driver of a thriving town centre, along with fraudulent shop fronts undercutting local businesses and outcompeting them, in addition to the rise of online shopping and supermarkets. It is near enough impossible to revive some places now, with only certain places being on the cusp of benefiting from a combination of new development and investment to fix the issues brought about by 60s/70s town planning. Stalybridge and Eccles are two examples that could potentially be turned around by beautifying the shop fronts and public realm and cleaning up the streets.
I would also add that footfall is another major factor. If we had a higher concentration of people living in town centres, you would naturally have more footfall for shops, even if those residents are poorer. However, you would also have to restrict HMOs in these areas, which are increasingly being used to house unsavoury people by Councils.
By Anonymous
Elephant is on the money, you can’t revive these high streets independent of the prosperity of the place (years of work), but you can make sure there’s a dignified public realm, and right-size the retail offer.
By Rich X
Re. Anon 11.23am – Don’t know about vape shops in Cheetham Hill – the former Counterfeit Street not really being a High Street – but the replacement in the last few years of almost every shop at the Bury Old Road end with near-identical chicken and burger takeaways over the past few years is much more of an issue.
Wouldn’t have been allowed to happen in any other district centre, but Planning and Licensing seem to ignore certain areas and the local councillors either haven’t heard of cumulative impact policies, or really, really like fried chicken.
By Anonymous
Retail Parks are thriving for many reasons, parking, safety, cleanliness. High Streets can’t offer any of this.
By Anonymous
I’m with Elephant on this one. Has Craig ever wandered around Crumpsall, I wonder?
I think she’s too busy promoting the “men can be women” stuff.
By Idi
So the mayor is going to siphon £20m to go towards things that have been a declining issue for years which either each borough, MCC or the combined authority should have addressed previously?….but £20m thrown at consultants/professional fees and redtape will now fix yeah?
By Anonymous
11:42 am by Anonymous. Big Box stores and retail parks are part of the problem, they are low value land use and no surprise Central retail park and now the one off Regent Road are going to redeveloped.
By Anonymous
So she is trying to change so much that is bad in our towns ????
I thought that Burnham had been a success over the past 9 years???
Have I missed something???
By Elephant 2
So we have a visit to an area and she knows what to do, bring in the shops and the people will come, there is some truth in that. However, the problem is not dealing with the infrastructure first, as that is a waste of money, but getting the local attitude right first and that is where this initiative will fail. This is the hardest thing to do, getting the local area bringing in money to spend and removing the local unruly behaviour, drugs and violence go hand in hand.
An example of that is Rochdale, I visit the town on a regular basis and it seems to have resolved the unruly behaviour, drugs and violence, but there is no real money in the area to increase / better the current offering.
By Steve5839
Take a look at Stockton on Tees as a good example, they knocked down a shopping centre to build an urban park directly off the high st. You dont need more retail space, you need something that will bring people into the town centre not to shop but to do something as a family or community. Play space for children, event space for music, theatre, shows etc. Also i might add that the last government had the town centre funds in place and many town centres started to benefit from this, including Stockton but some are stuck in planning and will never be built/followed through. Is the labour government going to scrap this intiaitve and dress it up as something else?
By Anonymous
The flawed business rates system coupled with the growth of online retail has been the biggest reason that town centres are failing. Repetitive Governments have not remodeled the biz rates system and instead tinkered around the edges with various reliefs which then expire and it makes it impossible for business owners (or aspiring owners) to anticipate what their rates may be from one year to another. I am hopeful the October budget will bring fundamental change and reform. Stockport is a great example of how a GM Mayoral Development Corporation has transformed the town centre – from somewhere I would never have visited 10 years ago, it is absolutely thriving now with a good retail and hospitality scene. Town centres also need people living in them – allow these old shopping centres/retail parks/brownfield sites to be redeveloped for inner-town-centre housing/flats. Build it and people will come.
By D
With the increase in business rates/council tax, increase in employment costs/NI, and massive energy costs, the government now wants to spend £20m on some consultants and some planters.
Just reduce costs, get out of the way and let people get on with their lives.
By Anonymous
To be clear, the £20m is for a fund that local business owners and community organisations would bid for support from to implement their own ideas on how to improve their own patch of the high street. It’s not for consultants and large scale strategic schemes.
By Julia Hatmaker
@anon 12:48, there is no problem with retail parks and big box stores, the problem is in town centres.
By Anonymous
Cheetham Hill has 54 Vape Shops on just two streets. Does she blame Burnham for this?
By Anonymous
@ August 11, 2026 at 4:00 pm
By Anonymous
I’m afraid there is.
No amount of doubling down from commentators will dissuade me from thinking that retail parks are not a good way of using land in a growing conurbation.
By Anonymous
@ August 11, 2026 at 2:21 pm
By D
Here’s hoping so.
I agree – and Stockport is really buzzing these days. Restoring buildings in Underbanks also helps massively – townscape appeal is oddly unappreciated by some commentators elsewhere on here.
By Anonymous
@ August 11, 2026 at 1:18 pm
By Steve5839
This is where things like policing on foot patrol come in. Preventative measures that deter crime, provide reassurance and make a place safer. Stronger families too. Most other things are mopping up after the event.
By Rye
@August 11, 2026 at 1:30 pm
By Anonymous
I agree. And Stockton is a great way of reinventing a town centre, connecting this to the Tees. A town has to be an attractive destination in its own right. The days of shopping monocultures in town centres are well and truly over.
By Rye
Stockport is blessed with a wealthy hinterland and some historic and attractive streets which just needed some imagination to bring up to scratch . The blame for the decline in our town centres cannot be all down to Amazon, the convenient bogeyman for all our ills. A lot of the issues are down to incompetent local government. Look at Bolton in the 90s. It was a town with facilities which could rival most cities, beautiful department stores, and the grand market hall. Oldham was never that good for shops but had a thriving market, which attracted people from everywhere. People may have only spent a fiver in Oldham or Bolton but it was a fiver they aren’t spending now. How did Bury keeps its thriving market? Oldham’s market was bigger in the 70s and has now been demoted into an indoor space. It is all down to poor local leadership and electing people devoid of ideas. I visited Oldham recently and could not believe that the town’s grandest building the Lyceum had been left to rot. Decaying buildings and boarded up shops just make people feel insecure, so they don’t go back.
By Elephant
Amazon is not the bogeyman when it comes to the decline of the high street but the change of shopping habits to online purchase and delivery is the biggest reason for the decline. No one is to blame it’s just a fundamental change in shopping habits. Unfortunately the traditional high street is going the same way as gas street lights, knocker uppers and being paid in cash.
By Anonymous
Prestwich needs all the cash only gents hairdressers sorting out too and the small supposedly convenience stores that actually are dealing.
By Chris
Public transport is expensive, it’s better for most people to drive, leaves more money to spend in shops
By Anonymous
@ August 13, 2026 at 7:19 am
By Anonymous
Not everyone can drive. Some of health reasons. It’s also a dangerous activity hence the need to be licensed.
By Anonymous
The uk has the 5th largest economy in the world and yet when I walk around the streets of Manchester and the small towns in its suburbs and much of the north west, I only see poverty and hardship dirty streets and this since the seventies. Where on earth is the money going?
The UK is one of the most unequal societies in the western world. Succesive governments ( principally conservative) have shown contempt and discrimination of those living in the north west and north east. Manchester and Liverpool have the potential of making Lancashire not only the most prosperous region in the UK but also one of the richest in europe.
By The Foreigner