Wills remains Tameside Leader as Godley Green grumbles grow

By the time Labour gathers for conference at the end of the summer, Andy Burnham could be the party’s leader and the country’s prime minister. If he gets the keys, the housing question he inherits is the one almost everybody in this industry has now quietly accepted has failed, writes Phil Cooper of Hope Architects. 

Reform’s Jake Berry says the party is not wedded to ideology as it draws up its policy platform, adding that deregulation, devolution and delivery could form the basis of the party’s general election manifesto in three years.

“This is only the start on devolution,” secretary of state Steve Reed told Place on Wednesday, in an exclusive interview after his stage session with Pat Ritchie at the Leeds-based investment conference.

Senior positions among members have now been formally allocated at a meeting of full council, following the shift in power at 7 May’s local elections.

Voters made one thing abundantly clear in the local elections, according to secretary of state Steve Reed: “They want to see change faster.” At UKREiiF, he and Homes England chair Pat Ritchie shared how they were going to answer that call to action.

An open letter to Greater Manchester Mayor and Makerfield Parliamentary candidate Andy Burnham from Jeremy Hinds.

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.

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?

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the government’s approach to planning and housing reform, rejecting claims it was ‘underprepared’ on entering office.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester used a speech at the Great North Investment Summit on Monday to launch his pitch as an MP for Makerfield and as a wide-ranging critique of centralised government, arguing that the “North doesn’t have all of the control that it needs” ahead of the forthcoming by-election.

Mayor Andy Burnham will contest a tricky by-election in Wigan in a bid to become an MP and launch a challenge to Keir Starmer’s leadership. If he wins, the mayoralty he has held since 2017 would be up for grabs.

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.

Aimed at facilitating a new route between Liverpool and Manchester, the modified High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill would allow for the development of new stations at Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.

With manifesto promises to build at least 20,000 social homes by 2030 and to reform the planning system, here’s what the industry needs to know about the party’s agenda and how it will impact projects in Flintshire, Wrexham, Denbighshire, Anglesey, and Gwynedd.

It was a bruising night for Labour in the North West and a triumph for Reform, with the Nigel Farage-led party picking up more than 200 seats across the region.

With more than 100 seats in the North West won, and no doubt more to follow, the industry can no longer ignore the Nigel Farage-led party. We spoke with strategic communications professionals about what Reform’s rise means for the industry.

The city council’s cabinet has rubber-stamped policy commitments on bringing empty homes back into use and improving rental sector conditions, as well as extending its programme of freehold sales.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government has taken the developer to court in an effort to recoup public money spent on building safety improvements in Manchester.

Work to update areas of the draft Central Lancashire Local Plan highlighted by planning inspectors as potentially unsound will be carried out by mid-June, the constituent councils – Preston, Chorley and South Ribble – have said.