North Manchester health campus lined up for approval
A draft strategic framework to redevelop the North Manchester General Hospital site into a £600m “healthy living campus” is tipped for sign-off by the council on Thursday and a public consultation will follow.
Under the plans, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust wants to create a second health campus to follow the Citylabs 1.0 health and technology hub in Manchester’s Knowledge Quarter, which is being developed as part of the trust’s development joint venture with Bruntwood.
This second campus would focus on healthy living with a residential component included, as well as specialist care facilities and training and employment opportunities for local people.
Manchester City Council’s economy scrutiny committee is to review a draft strategic regeneration framework – not yet publicly available – at its meeting on Thursday, and has been recommended to approve the document, paving the way for a public consultation on the plans.
The SRF is the latest stage in the strategic planning of the £600m redevelopment scheme. North Manchester General Hospital spans 67 acres in Crumpsall, 4km outside Manchester city centre. The site houses a district general hospital, intermediate care facility and mental health hospital, but the buildings are ageing and in need of significant work, the NHS trust has noted.
The project secured £54m from the Government earlier this month, and architectural firm Sheppard Robson was appointed as the lead architect.
The papers published by Manchester City Council ahead of its meeting on Thursday do not specify how many homes would be built but says the project would take 10 years and yield a gross value add of £350m and create 6,000 construction jobs over the period.
The hospital component of the plans are estimated to result in operational savings to the NHS of around £65m.
The five planks of the draft SRF are:
- Healthcare Hub – featuring a replacement acute hospital and modern mental health hospital, to anchor the campus
- Wellbeing Hub – to enable the delivery of modern, integrated community health, care and wellbeing services, with a single building for mixed service provision, meeting spaces and a café
- Education Hub – a centre to provide staff training for employees of the hospital and community health and wellbeing hub, and to generate employment opportunities for future local residents
- Healthy Neighbourhood Hub – a residential-led component providing key worker accommodation, social housing, stepdown care and extra care, as well as commercial space for local SMEs
- Village Green – comprising high quality outdoor space, acting as a focal point for the campus with green spaces and water features, for staff and local residents to use for meetings, exercise and relaxation
The £54m from the Government is subject to the NHS trust submitting an outline business case to the Government next month for approval.
