Greater Manchester (slowly) trailblazes ahead

Announced as part of the Budget, Mayor Andy Burnham and the 10 council leaders hailed their new Trailblazer Deal as the most significant devolution settlement to the city region, describing it as “a vote of confidence in devolution and Greater Manchester and its ability to deliver”.

The deal strengthens the role of the Combined Authority and Mayor, through additional powers and new financial freedoms. It also puts in place new measures to hold Greater Manchester to account.

Here I review the main areas of relevance for real estate professionals and those wanting to know what it means in practice for investment into our built environment.

Housing & regeneration

The Trailblazer Deal gives the Combined Authority new powers and flexible funding to help Greater Manchester build more homes and spread regeneration across the city region.

Devolved decision-making over £150m of brownfield funding, local leadership over the Affordable Homes Programme in Greater Manchester and a Greater Manchester Housing Quality Pathfinder are designed to rapidly increase the number of affordable, net zero homes across the city region and spearhead regeneration in part of Greater Manchester that have missed out in previous years.

Transport

The full integration of local transport services by 2030 is a key ambition of Andy Burnham, with London-style integrated fares and ticketing across bus, Metrolink and rail journeys under the Bee Network brand.

The Trailblazer Deal takes babysteps towards achieving this via new pilots being agreed later this year for integrated fares and ticketing and a new Rail Partnership with Great British Railways announced.

It also lays the foundations for future integration of the city region’s railway stations into the Bee Network through the creation of a new regional business unit and GM Rail Board.

But decisions around short term funding and powers to tackle anti-social behaviour are yet to be finalized.

 A single financial settlement

The most ‘trailblazing’ aspect of the Deal is a new single departmental-style funding settlement for the Combined Authority in the next Spending Review. This will be a first for city regions in England and will put Greater Manchester on a similar footing to the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

Insiders within the Combined Authority see this as the single biggest win of the Trailblazer Deal and argue that it will provide the city region with real autonomy to make better policy decisions around local growth and place, local transport, housing and regeneration, adult skills and buildings’ retrofit for decarbonisation.

But with more power comes more accountability and the Combined Authority will see its existing scrutiny committees and panels enhanced alongside more scrutiny from Greater Manchester’s MPs.

For those of us who have long argued the case for greater devolution in England there is much to be welcomed by the Greater Manchester Trailblazer Deal. Additional funding to unlock brownfield sites and more local controls over housing and regeneration should help to speed-up the delivery of new homes across the city region. These new powers and monies, combined with an adopted Places For Everyone development plan should underpin significant investment into Greater Manchester’s built environment over the next couple of years.

But many of us will be disappointed about the lack of significant progress made when it comes to transport. Many of the commitments from Government appear to be thin gruel and follow a familiar pattern of promises for the future that may never materialize.

With doubt continuing about the future of HS2 and the emasculation of Transport for the North over recent years, I don’t hold too much hope that further devolution over the city region’s rail network will happen under a Rishi Sunak Government.

BECG is the UK’s number 1 public affairs consultancy that works with public and private sector clients across the built environment. To find out more about how we can help you understand emerging policy at a local, regional or national level visit becg.com