Event Summary
Greater Manchester Development Update: Summary and photos
“It’s been eventful and has gone in the blink of an eye,” Joanne Roney told guests on her last day as chief executive of Manchester City Council before taking up her new role in Birmingham.
The list of positives she would take away from seven years in post included completed projects such as Aviva Studios, and she said the best of times had been seeing the city’s response to crisis: “That showed me what Manchester is all about – strength, pride, passion.”
Her challenges included keeping development going during Covid – even taking sole planning powers, something she said she never wanted to do again: “Needs must. From day one we started to plan recovery. We did not want growth to falter. Manchester was the city that came back the fastest.”
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In terms of unfinished business, there was completing the boulevard-style makeover of Deansgate, “the vision is still there,” and delays to the Town Hall’s renovation, “this city will never be ‘finished’. That’s the beauty of Manchester. It’s always growing, there’ll always be cranes.”
Action-packed
Ten boroughs, three million people, the biggest economic powerhouse outside the capital, the Greater Manchester Development Update showcased a city region packed with activity – and heard numerous calls of ‘come and work with us’ from the political bodies.
Held at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, this year’s Greater Manchester Development Update was sponsored by Hydrock now Stantec, Wigan Council, JMW, Euan Kellie Property Solutions, Placemarque and Places Matter.
Viability issues
Chairing the event, Dan Whelan, deputy editor of Place North West, canvassed the audience’s views on factors holding up development. Around 53% said viability and 29% blamed the planning system.
Among the examples of challenged viability, Paul Whittingham, assistant director for development and regeneration at Bolton Council, detailed The Wellsprings workspace where costs increased from £6.5m to £10.9m.
Around 270 guests attended the GM Development Update. Credit: PNW
Strategic measures
David Lynch, director of development and strategic housing for Manchester City Council, said his strategy was to “turbocharge opportunities for employment, investment, housing and productivity.”
He said Mayfield was getting “really, really needed” grade-A office space, while St Michael’s was going from strength to strength with “headline rents achieved” alongside a five-star hotel “game changer”.
Public consultation is underway for a new civil service hub at Central Retail Park “relocating 6,000 highly paid jobs to the gateway of East Manchester”.
Holt Town and Wythenshawe are two of Manchester’s development hotpots, according to David Lynch. Credit: PNW
In Victoria North, there will be 15,000 homes which will be an “unapologetically dense almost extension of the city centre”, while Strangeways will “continue to be an industrious location” where the city council and partners own significant freeholds. He says it has the city’s best interaction with the River Irwell and the partners are exploring “options around the prison; whether it stays or goes”.
Holt Town and Wythenshawe also received special mention, as did Mix Manchester – formerly Airport City – and he said there’s a “very strong brief” for the site of Church Street car park in the Northern Quarter which will be marketed for redevelopment from October.
Bolton’s Paul Whittingham talked about the council’s approach to reinvigorating the town centre. Credit: PNW
Bolton’s vision
The focus of Paul Whittingham, assistant director of development and regeneration at Bolton Council was on land availability, funding and viability, set against a confident backdrop. He said: “The housing market is the first piece of the puzzle. We had to create a market, utilising funding to bring sites forward and put our own skin in the game.”
Placefirst’s Deansgate Gardens and Step Places’ Moor Lane will both have people living in them by next year, while the council’s The Wellsprings innovation centre will open in October. The visitor and cultural economy were also highlighted, as was improving public realm. Whittingham said: “Without people in the town centre, it’s just buildings.”
Elizabeth Park is Bolton town centre’s first new green space in 100 years, while on Church Wharf, there will be 417 new homes and a 120-bed hotel. Crompton Place has also had a £300m rethink – demolition starts in March, with CBRE recruited to procure developers from October.
On the fate of Levelling Up, Whittingham added: “Let’s see if the government stick to the previous government’s strategy of investing in town centres.”
David Proctor highlighted opportunities for development within Wigan’s station gateway. Credit: PNW
Wigan’s transformation
Touching on £40m regeneration programmes across Leigh and Ashton in Makerfield, David Proctor, assistant director for planning and regeneration at Wigan Council, said: “The town centre is the first thing on our minds, anchored by the Wigan Galleries, and at the other end by the Pier and Eckersley Mills. It’s a cohesive corridor with opportunities in the middle in the Station Gateway.
“The Galleries site is fully cleared. The first phase is the new market hall, the centrepiece. Food and beverage, co-working space – it will be the new heart for the town centre. Beyond that, a new multimedia centre – cinema, bowling, rock climbing, you name it. A new hotel with Hampton by Hilton. The last bit of the jigsaw is over 400 homes.”
Heaton Group’s £200m Eckersley Mills is one of the biggest heritage-led projects in the UK. Mill One is on site now for commercial space and food and drink. Mill Three is residential conversions – 130 apartments and 1,000 new build homes, with leisure and hotel space.
The Station Gateway will have 800 residential units and 2m sq ft of commercial, with improved station approaches. Proctor added: “There is an opportunity to reimagine that offer. There is extensive Network Rail-owned land that is ripe for development.”
Salford’s John Searle highlighted the city’s numerous growth locations. Credit: PNW
Salford succeeds
John Searle, Salford City Council’s strategic director of place said the city has 67,000 homes in the development pipeline, along with 10m sq ft of commercial floorspace, over the next 15 to 20 years. He said an earlier target of 40,000 homes by 2040 had been “binned” after they delivered 15,000 of those in five years.
After a romp around Greengate, Chapel Wharf, New Bailey, Middlewood Locks and Eccles and Swinton to demonstrate growth potential, he was keen to remind the audience that Media City is “only half done”.
He also stressed the need for development to go beyond buildings, citing festivals and events as a vital tool. He gave the example of investment in the Quayside shopping centre where Cargo is a success, and the council is looking at installing a GP practice. “Quays is now a town centre in its own right.”
Salford Crescent was “just getting going” with new housing, education space, a transport hub, and planning consent for the Innovation Quarter which will be linked to the University and the rest of the Crescent by Salford Rise elevated garden walkway.
Guests were beginning the conference season after summer. Credit: PNW
Entrepreneurial Oldham
Emma Barton, deputy chief executive of Oldham Council, said it was one of the top 10 entrepreneurial locations in the UK, unlocking investment of £285m with four cornerstones – people, place, planet and prosperity.
In the town centre, Barton named Spindles, acquired by the council as a “catalyst for regeneration”, with its market space and event centre. The fully-let ground floor is retail, while the upper mall is a public sector hub with 1,000 staff a day supporting retailers and the night time economy. Meanwhile The Hive coworking space opens soon. She also discussed the transformation of heritage assets, including town halls in Oldham, Failsworth, Chadderton and Royton, and the recent CPO of the Prudential Building.
As well as being a buzzword – a quarter of Oldham lies in the Peak District – ‘green’ is also a strength in Oldham’s tech clusters. In Stakehill, Atom Valley, the vision is “homes for all, new opportunities, enriched experiences, green future and stronger communities”. Noting that Oldham turned 175 years-old this year, Barton said: “We are not building for the next 10 years – we are building for the next 175.”
Oldham’s Emma Barton explained why the council picked Muse for its town centre residential masterplan. Credit: PNW
Musing on partnerships
Whelan asked if Muse’s proliferation of projects, dubbed ‘Greater Muse-chester’, ran the risk of duplication. Stuart Rogers, director of project management, said Muse’s ubiquity was a strength: “People want a track record, financial strength and stability. They want to know you will make decisions that benefit 10 years’ time, rather than now.”
Speaking broadly, Annie Coombs, co-chair of Places Matter, added: “Although there will be an overall ethos, it’s going to be the design calibre and expertise of different teams. People are really important. The design process has to be done in the context of the site, what the client wants, what the local people are saying they want.”
Andrea Winders, head of life sciences for MIDAS, talked about how partnerships can make a place unique – like scientific or industrial expertise, or tapping into different investment pots. She said: “We need each of those areas to understand their strengths. If you don’t have a reason for an industrial site being there, we are in competition with the rest of the UK or Europe or the world. We are doing great at bringing things forward – I want to see more purpose around it.”
Whether or not GM is good at placemaking was one of the questions the panel grappled with. Credit: PNW
Planning ahead
Quizzed over what GM must do better, Rogers said: “If you don’t do it already, design the ground floor first. When you leave, that’s the space that the public own.”
Winders said: “Design homes for everyone, whether they’re from the streets, or 100 years old.”
Coombs added: “Think about the education of the people coming up. Bringing on those young people with the tools they need but ensuring they don’t lose out on design quality.”
Asked how councils under pressure to put homes on brownfield sites could mitigate the challenges, Euan Kellie, founder of Euan Kellie Property Solutions, said: “You can’t look at a site in isolation – what is the developable area, ‘oh, there’s a culvert’. Be conscious of the surroundings, is there a land acquisition piece?”
Kellie wanted to see greater efficiency in processes like Section 106 agreements, and the age-old lack of planning officers was also discussed: “The Government talks about 300 new jobs. Times that by 10!”
What’s next?
Join Place North at one of our upcoming events:
Innovation in Property | 19 September 2024
Offices + Workspace | 10 October 2024
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