Event Summary
Greater Manchester Development Update 2026 | Summary + gallery
Delegates at Place North West’s sold-out conference heard from the newly elected mayor on how she is targeting a decade of growth, the impact of the new NPPF on development in the city region, and how the pioneering £2bn Good Growth Fund is unlocking development in a constrained market.
A stellar line-up of speakers from the public and private sectors ran the rule over Greater Manchester and discussed how through an unrivalled work ethic and collaborative approach it can maintain its reputation as the country’s premier development and invest hotspot in the years ahead.
The event was held at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Thursday 3 September and was chaired by Place North West deputy editor Dan Whelan.
The event was sponsored by Onward Homes, CPW, Muse, Wigan and Leigh College, Brabners, Asteer Planning, Allsop, and Caddick.
Expert speakers:
- Bev Craig – Mayor of Greater Manchester
- Chris Oglesby – chief executive of Bruntwood
- Colin Thomasson – executive director at CBRE
- Laura Blakey – director of strategic finance and investment at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority
- Tony Walsh – senior strategic advisor at the National Wealth Fund
- Stuart Rogers – operations & commercial director at Muse
- Jon Suckley – managing partner – Asteer Planning
- Christopher Katkowski KC – barrister at Kings Chambers
- Rebecca Coley – head of planning and development at Trafford Council
- Anthony Benson – director at Allies and Morrison
- Cllr Tom Ross – Leader of Trafford Council
Place North West’s Greater Manchester Development Update was a sell-out. Credit: PNW
Chris Oglesby sets the scene
Bruntwood chief executive Chris Oglesby explained that doing development in 2026 is “brutal” and harder than in the wake of the global financial crash due to rising construction costs, softening yields, and rising gilt rates.
However, he remains extremely positive about the future of Greater Manchester.
“I always say, thank God I’m operating in this city because if I wasn’t operating here, I don’t think our business would still be here,” he said.
On Greater Manchester’s ability to buck the national growth trend and outperform other regional cities in the development stakes, he said: “Coming to work in Manchester every day is a hell of an antidote to the national press, isn’t it? I know it’s tough, but we’re doing stuff here that just isn’t happening anywhere else.”
Bruntwood CEO Chris Oglesby is optimistic in a difficult market. Credit: PNW
He remarked on the negativity in the national media about the direction the country is going in and said he believes Andy Burnham can change the narrative by balancing the delivery of “brutal facts” with “absolute conviction of the ability to succeed”.
“We’ve had this downward spiral, and we need somebody to reverse it. We need somebody to talk positively. We need somebody to give the country hope, and that’s what certainly Andy’s doing.”
Growing the Good Growth Fund
It is almost a year since the Greater Manchester Combined Authority launched the Good Growth Fund, a new funding model that invests patient capital from devolved funds to leverage in private capital to finance projects across a range of sectors.
Since then, £900m has been allocated to projects in all 10 boroughs with the aim of delivering growth across the city region from Trafford in the south to Bury in the north.
Former mayor Andy Burnham said that the fund was designed to close Greater Manchester’s north/south divide.
GMCA’s Laura Blakey said all areas of GM would benefit from the fund. Credit: PNW
GMCA’s Laura Blakey said that growth would indeed be felt everywhere, but not necessarily at the same pace. She added that investing in city centre schemes is crucial to the overall growth of the city region.
“It’s a growing city centre, and we need to invest in it,” she said. “We need to invest in it as much as we need to invest in Wigan and Tameside and Oldham. It’s different types of investment, it’s different types of intervention, its different regeneration, but it all needs the investment.”
So buoyed is it by the Greater Manchester proposition, the National Wealth Fund has committed to investing £500m in the city region via the Good Growth Fund.
Tony Walsh, senior strategic advisor at the NWF said the collaborative ethos of GM and the fund were attractive elements of the city region’s offer. “That narrative around good growth gets people to talk for the good of Greater Manchester,” he said.
“And it doesn’t matter whether you’re from government, local government, the private sector, you lose those shackles and you start to have those conversations, and for me, that’s a really powerful part of this good growth ambition.
The Good Growth Fund panel spoke about the need to move at pace to deliver growth. Credit: PNW
Like Oglesby, Muse’s Stuart Rogers said the market was incredibly tough in terms of developers’ ability to deliver. He added that the Good Growth Fund was a partial antidote to the industry’s viability travails.
“It’s blooming helpful at the moment,” he said. “GM is the only place that is happening. I have a national role within Muse, and I see it all. I see everything that everyone’s doing with every combined authority, and people want to be like GM and do what GM are doing. But they’re three or five years behind.”
CBRE’s Colin Thomasson, who advises the Greater Manchester Pension Fund on its property investments, said people would judge the success of the fund on its ability to deliver quickly.
“Speed is a competitive advantage for any place, any city, any company,” he said. “Everybody’s got to be focused on moving as quickly as we possibly can to deliver this. If it takes two years to get a project going, that’s two years of inflation in the background.
“The quicker we can move through this pipeline, the more activity we can create, the more growth we can create, the more jobs we can create, the more housing we can create.”
The Mayor speaks
In her first speech to the property market since being elected as Greater Manchester Mayor in July, Bev Craig put out a call to the industry to get involved in the city region’s growth journey.
“We’ve had a lot of words in the last decade and a half in Greater Manchester,” Craig told the crowd at Bridgewater Hall. “The next decade and a half is about delivery. Politicians don’t have the monopoly on good ideas. If you have a good idea, an idea that benefits the city region or your bit of it, get in touch.”
Read more on what Craig said at the event
Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig delivered her first speech to the property community since her election win in July. Credit: PNW
Planning unpicked
The government published its updated NPPF in the midst of summer, prompting property professionals across the nation to put down their pina coladas and get reading. But what does it mean for Greater Manchester’s development community?
Asteer’s Jon Suckley welcomed the revised framework as pro-development and much clearer than its predecessors.
“It’s probably the most radical version that we’ve had since the document was first published in 2012,” he said.
“We’ve now got two presumptions in favour of sustainable development: one that relates to in-settlement development, and one that relates to outside settlement development. So it’s very much geared to helping the government deliver their 1.5m homes.”
Christopher Katkowski, one of the country’s foremost planning barristers, agreed with Suckley but said there were still areas of the document that were vague and could become “legal tripwires”.
One such area was around design. The new NPPF states that schemes must “enhance” their surroundings; Katkowski believes this could be open to interpretation.
He identified legal uncertainty around materially inconsistent local policies, density, design and the requirement for development to enhance its context. Design policy DP3 is expected to become a significant area of dispute.
“It seems to me we’ve had this very high expectation for design that’s been introduced,” he said. “Design, I think, is going to become a much bigger battleground than we’ve had in the past.”
Three planning experts ran the rule over the updated NPPF. Credit: PNW
From a local authority perspective, Trafford Council’s Rebecca Coley welcomed the NPPF’s clearer distinction between plan-making and development management policies.
When asked about Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s plans to give mayors powers to override local planning decisions, she was wary.
“I wouldn’t be very happy about it,” she said. “We want to determine our own planning applications. We’ve got the skills, we’ve got the resources, and we’ve got a very sensible set of members on our planning committee.”
Wharfside masterplan – a £7.3bn growth opportunity for the country
Anthony Benson, partner at Allies and Morrison gave an in-depth presentation on the masterplan that has been drawn up for the 370 acres around Manchester United’s Old Trafford Stadium.
Wharfside presents a opportunity to leverage its historic assets – like the Manchester Ship Canal and the football stadium – to create a new place for people to live, work, and play, Benson said.
As well as a 100,000-seater stadium, 15,000 homes are proposed, while estimates suggest 48,000 homes could be created in an area that is comparable in size to Manchester city centre.
Allies and Morrison’s Anthony Benson talks the audience through the masterplan. Credit: PNW
“The area that it covers is absolutely immense,” Benson said. And so, this isn’t a master plan of one vision. This is going to be a place of places.
“This is going to be a place of enormous variety of different characters, different scales, different land uses and activities, destinations, all within a new city district, it’s going to play a very significant part in the growth of the city region.”
Cllr Tom Ross, Leader of Trafford Council, lives on the edge of the Wharfside masterplan area and said residents he has spoken to are “buzzing” about the change coming to an area that is currently not punching above its weight.
For the leader, ensuring the project delivers for locals is the top priority.
“There is a lot of civic pride and there’s a lot of apprehension as well,” he said.
“People want us to get this right. People want to make sure that the residents around the area get something from what is an incredibly exciting project.”
What’s next?
- 17 September – Energy and Power
- 24 September – Revitalising our Town and City Centres
- 1 October – Place Party North of England
Click on any image to launch gallery
