Fusion lodges 28-storey student tower plan

A site bordered by the Centre Park business park, the mainline north-south railway and the River Mersey is to be advanced by the housebuilder.

Plans for Manchester's House of Fraser raise hopes that the North West's defunct department stores can find a new future. With the HS2 high speed line to Crewe now signed into law, Subplot asks if the town is all-aboard the workspace train. Meanwhile, Oldham Council pulls the threads together on the Spindles redevelopment.

Political leaders from Liverpool City Region, Warrington, and Cheshire West & Chester have combined to condemn part of the Northern Powerhouse Rail proposal it says would “short-change” the region.

Local authorities have redoubled efforts to convince Chancellor Rishi Sunak to support projects such as a new Deeside Parkway station and the modernisation of Chester’s station in the Budget Statement on 3 March.

Work can officially start on the first Northern leg of the UK’s high speed rail project after the proposals were enshrined in law on Thursday.

Peel L&P’s proposed multi-modal terminal on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal has been included in Liverpool City Region’s bid for ‘freeport’ status, despite it being in Greater Manchester.

Will a Liverpool freeport with tentacles extending into Greater Manchester become a regional game-changer? With WeWork pondering a return to the acquisitions trail in Manchester, how will the flexible office sector make money and who will make it? Meanwhile, Subplot takes a look at property industry donations to politics, and examines the tightening investment criteria for hotels.

Housebuilders Redrow and Bellway are looking to separately develop hundreds of homes across four plots close to the railway line at Halewood, in schemes tipped for approval by the council next week.