GM unveils projects to get share of £1bn ‘good growth’ fund
The conversion of the former Kendals department store in Manchester into 450,000 sq ft of office space will get £44m from the fund’s first wave of interventions, which could unlock 3,000 homes and 2m sq ft of workspace through £400m of loans, grants, and equity.
Scroll to the foot of this article for a full list of projects allocated a share of the £400m
The £1bn GM Good Growth Fund, touted as the first of its kind and billed by Mayor Andy Burnham as a “new model of economic growth”, has been established to unlock a £10bn pipeline of potentially transformational projects across the city region.
First reported by Place North West last week, the fund is made up of £420m of loans, £200m of grants via Greater Manchester’s integrated settlement, £200m of GMCA borrowing, and an initial £300m investment from the Greater Manchester Pension Fund.
The fund signals a fresh, local approach to smashing through the viability barrier that national government has failed to achieve.
The first £400m will provide “just enough finance to make projects viable”, according to the combined authority, and keep the city region on a trend-bucking growth trajectory.
“Greater Manchester is the UK’s economic success story of the past decade,” Burnham said.
“Powered by devolution, our journey of growth has transformed our city region and is opening up opportunities that people could not have imagined 30 years ago.
“But we know that the real test of good growth is whether every person and every place feels the benefits.”
Andy Burnham said the fund would pioneer a ‘new model of economic growth’. Credit: PNW
He added: “We’ve never believed in a busted ‘trickle-down’ theory that puts the pursuit of pure economic growth above the basic needs of our communities.
“And growth in Greater Manchester has never been an end in itself – it’s a means of improving lives by creating new opportunities and broadening access to them.
“We know we will only change the fortunes of our people and places by getting on with fixing the things national politics has neglected.
“And it’s why Greater Manchester is ready to pioneer a new model for economic growth – unlocking investment to build new homes, create good jobs, deliver infrastructure, and providing the everyday support that will enable everyone to live a good life.
“Good growth is the defining challenge of our age – and today we are setting out a serious, practical plan to achieve it.”
Stockport 8 will benefit from a big slug of funding. Credit: Our Studio
The winners
Unsurprisingly, Manchester is the big winner in the first wave of projects. Bruntwood SciTech’s Sister innovation campus will get £20m and £34.1m will go towards continued delivery at Victoria North, the 15,000-home scheme being developed by FEC for the city council that could soon be given new town status. The regeneration on Wythenshawe will get £24.5m.
A £44m cash injection for the redevelopment of Kendals on Deansgate is arguably the most eye-catching of the fund’s investments; Investec’s scheme has been stalled for several years but the funding could finally see the project get off the ground.
Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said the fund would “rewire how investment transforms local areas and people’s lives”.
“We know that the past decade has been transformational for Greater Manchester. We’ve attracted record investment, and creating the right environment for businesses to grow, creating jobs and opportunities for our residents, not only becoming the UK’s fastest growing economy but turning the tide on decades of decline.
“Good, inclusive growth means spreading the benefits of growth to all our people and all our boroughs.”
The Prestwich project was approved in 2024. Credit: via Font
Developer Muse has a number of notable projects among the first wave of investments. As well as Wythenshawe Civic, these include Stockport 8 – ECF’s town centre residential scheme – which will get £41.3m and the 336-apartment Adelphi Village in Salford, earmarked for £23.4m.
Two more Muse schemes – the regeneration of Prestwich and the resi-led redevelopment of Oldham – will get a combined £37m.
Cole Waterhouse’s 382-home Trafford Wharf scheme will benefit from £26m, Heaton Group’s Eckersley Village in Wigan will get just shy of £24m, Ashton town centre £7.6m, and £17.1m is heading for Harworth’s 800,000 sq ft Wingates industrial scheme in Bolton.
Paul Dennett, City Mayor of Salford and Greater Manchester’s housing lead said: “From raising standards through the UK’s first Good Landlord Charter, to delivering new genuinely affordable and beautiful net zero homes for our residents, to tackling the urgent and unsustainable temporary accommodation crisis – housing is the cornerstone of a healthy, happy life, and must be at the heart of any serious plan to improve people’s lives and deliver good growth.
“This first £400m from our Good Growth Fund will fuel that effort.”
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority hopes that the fund could leverage £1.3m of private capital.
Submissions made by developers for support from the GM Growth Fund totaled almost 22,000 homes across 69 schemes with a combined funding ask of £838m. Employment schemes put forward would add 7.7m sq ft to the market across 28 schemes – the total funding ask was £571m. Taken together, the accumulated ask to get these projects off the ground is £1.4bn, outling the scale of the delivery challenge even after the formation of the good growth fund.
Full list of projects supported in the first phase of GM Good Growth Fund allocations
Housing
- Victoria North Manchester – Far East Consortium – £34.1 – 622 homes
- Whitworth Street West Manchester – Glenbrook – £17m – 364 homes
- Postal Street Manchester – This City – £16.3m – 126 homes
- Prince’s Gate Phase 2 Oldham – Muse – £35.1m – 256 homes
- Adelphi Village Salford – English Cities Fund – £23.4m – 336 homes
- Fletcher Street Stockport – Progressive Living/Picture This – 15.0m – 245 homes
- Stockport 8 – Muse – £41.3m – 435 homes
- Trafford Wharf – Cole Waterhouse/Heim Global – £26m – 382 homes
- Cottonworks Block A Wigan – Heaton Group – £14m – 179 homes
Total funding: £222.2m
Total homes: 2,945
Additional housing schemes in Tameside, Stretford, Prestwich, Wythenshawe, Bolton, Rochdale, will get a combined £62.9m – details to be confirmed at a later date.
Employment
- Wingates Bolton – Harworth Group – £17.1m – 800,000 sq ft
- Prestwich town centre – Muse – £6.8m – 34,455 sq ft
- Upper Brook Street Manchester life sciences – Property Alliance Group – £22.1m – 81,354 sq ft
- Kendals Manchester – Kendals Regeneration (Investec) – £44m – 450,000 sq ft
- Mayfield Manchester – Mayfield Partnership – £13m – 92,000 sq ft
- Sister – Bruntwood SciTech/University of Manchester – £20m – 225,000 sq ft
- Mix Manchester – Mix Manchester JV – £7m – 121,000 sq ft
- Ashton strategic town centre acquisitions – Tameside Council – £7.6m – 197,000 sq ft
- Cotton Works Wigan – Heaton Group – £9.9m – 80,000 sq ft
Total funding: £147.5m
Total floorspace: 2m sq ft
To be applauded. Exemplar leadership and a pathway for other combined authorities to follow.
By Ian Squires
Not a Labour voter but would happily vote Manchester Labour. They have transformed that city the last 30 years. I’m from Liverpool and we all know how abysmal the “leadership” is here.
By Peter
The recent national multiple deprivation figures showed Manchester as still the fifth most deprived local authority area in the country. That’s a shocking stat given the “success” and change in the city centre over 20 years. To say there is “more to do” is an understatement. But if Burnham/GM approach can’t make an impact, who can ..?
By Anonymous
£44m for the office project at Kendals? Did I read this right? How is that on the margins of viability? And it’s not like Manchester has a desperate shortage of office space, even if the pace of starts has slowed recently. And beyond that, the project is simply not very good – that hideous rooftop extension, plus the loss of all that retail space at a time the city centre is seriously struggling to compete with the Trafford Centre. A dreadful use of public money.
By Anonymous