Omaze-ing: Eden Project Morecambe secures £4.5m donation

The 30^th anniversary on Monday will again attract misplaced credit to the bomb for changing the fate of Manchester and being responsible for a large rebuilding programme. Here are five things that were more important in the making of modern Manchester, and all came before 1996, Paul Unger writes.

Recognising the chance to make an underground station at Piccadilly a reality, city council chiefs have secured backing to add firepower to the division charged with making the detailed case to government.

Hugh Frost, Tom Stannard and Katie Saunders share insights from development and local government at this off-the-record, senior-level briefing, giving you market intelligence to set the agenda for the rest of the year.

A busy day for NatWest: the bank has a launched a national £250m Section 106 Loan Fund and has also committed to a multi-million-pound loan to the Kendal-headquartered housing association to support the building of 253 affordable rental homes.

The 81-bedroom Mercure-branded hotel and spa in Castleton, close to Rochdale, is up for sale.

Principality Building Society has made its first deal with the Gwynedd-area registered provider, agreeing a loan facility that will help the housing association in building more than 200 homes.

The council wants to terminate a two-year option agreement on the Wilderspool Causeway site held by Wire Regeneration, its joint venture with Langtree.

ForHousing is the first in the North West to be awarded funding from the Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026-36, pledging to use its successful bid to deliver 185 homes in Salford.

Friargate Court is up for grabs after landlord Innovation Court collapsed last year owing more than £10m to the bank that funded the acquisition of the scheme in 2023.

With long-term tenant JMW soon to depart for 125 Deansgate, the Canal & River Trust is positioning the 32,000 sq ft Manchester office block as a refurbishment opportunity.

Understood to include office schemes at One Pall Mall Gardens and Martins Bank, six projects worth more than £200m will receive support from the fund.

Southway Housing Trust and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group are in talks about a deal that would create the city’s largest social housing organisation, with around 21,000 homes.

Supported by a loan from GMCA’s Good Growth Fund, the council has completed the acquisition of the 151,000 sq ft Ashton-under-Lyne retail hub.

This year was supposed to be the year of the great landlord exodus. We were told there would be a stampede for the door, as the combination of incoming legislation such as the Renters’ Rights Act, plus increased landlord responsibilities, made it less affordable than ever to be in the property sector. And yet, we have seen something rather different, writes Phil Basten, Handelsbanken Manchester and Trafford branch, so what is going on?

Announced at The Great North Summit in Leeds, the funding will be spread across the next 10 years and will support investment in areas crucial to regional growth, such as energy, transport, infrastructure, regeneration, and housing.

UK Sport has been commissioned to carry out an initial strategic assessment of a potential pan-Northern bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Development funding of £15.5m from BG Lending will provide the capital required to progress construction at Central Point, the property group said.

Story Homes’ 1,300-home garden village and Logik’s 1.9m sq ft industrial proposals have both been rejected by unanimous verdicts at planning committee.

The Canadian-headquartered investor will use the phased funding to advance its pipeline of 6,000 build-to-rent apartments in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and London’s commuter belt.