GMCA to set up revolving nine-figure facility to drive ‘good growth’

GM Mayor Andy Burnham said the “investment fund” – understood to be worth in the hundreds of millions of pounds – would support the delivery of the city region’s 10-year growth and regeneration pipeline and is due to be signed off later this month.

The nine-figure fund, backed by Greater Manchester Pension Fund and including cash from the city region’s integrated settlement, would be the GMCA’s financial mechanism to deliver the schemes identified within Greater Manchester’s £10bn pipeline.

“We have created a single investment fund with partners including the Greater Manchester Pension Fund. It is an innovative and new way of speeding up growth and bringing growth to all people and all places,” he said at an event marking the official groundbreaking at the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre in Rochdale on Wednesday.

The SMMC is one of the projects that will benefit from the fund and one the mayor hopes could help to start closing the economic gap between Greater Manchester’s northern and southern boroughs.

The 30,000 sq ft scheme, which is being constructed by Glencar and was designed by BondBryan:Fairhursts, marks the start of Atom Valley, a 17m sq ft employment zone across Oldham, Bury and Rochdale that could create 20,000 jobs. 

It will host laboratory space, workshops, metrology space, design and analysis studios, a lecture theatre, and meeting rooms aimed at companies working within the advanced manufacturing and materials sector.

It is hoped SMMC will form part of a ‘super-cluster’ in the North of England, focused on advanced materials and industrial digital technologies to support advanced manufacturing in its transition to net zero.

Burnham said the new investment pot would allow Greater Manchester to embark on the next chapter of its devolution journey that will focus more on the wider city region, particularly the northern boroughs and projects like the SMMC.

The SMMC marks a step change in how GM delivers growth, according to Burnham. Credit: via Rochdale Development Agency

“We have not seen enough change in Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, and Wigan,” he said, alluding to a decade of growth the has seen Manchester city centre boom in comparison to other places across the city region.

“You can’t make places wait forever to see the change,” he added.

The mayor said that the new fund was partly inspired the success of the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund, a revolving facility that has unlocked thousands of homes on brownfield sites across GM.

More details of the investment fund are due to be announced next week but it is understood that it could provide both loans and grants.

In the last 10 years, GM has reported 3.1% annual growth, outstripping the national average, due in large part to the success of the city centre.

The mayor said the 10 years would be about sharing the growth around.

“You have got to get the powerhouse of the city centre firing on all cylinders [but] we have got to be honest with ourselves and say ‘has every person and every place felt the benefit of that growth?’ 

“The next decade of growth in Greater Manchester is going to be a decade of good growth where we lift every person and every place.”