Stockport rubber stamps 4,000-home vision
The council has approved a framework mapping out plans for high density urban living, a modern health hub, and a new school across 280 acres in the east of the town centre.
Stockport Council’s cabinet signed off the Stockport Town Centre East strategic regeneration framework last night. It will now be a material consideration in future planning decisions, guiding development proposals to align with the Council’s ambitions for the town.
Drafted by CBRE, with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, CW Studio, and Stantec, the plan sets out the council and its mayoral development corporation’s ambitions for 4,000 homes in the east of the town centre, building on the work already underway in the west.
Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation’s Town Centre East vision, which stretches eastwards from Wellington Road North to St Mary’s Way and northwards from Hempshaw Lane to the M60, forms part of a wider £1bn transformation programme.
To date, £600m of private sector cash has flowed to the west of the town centre as a direct result of the work the MDC has done to unlock sites and speed up development, according to the council.
Projects delivered and emerging within Town Centre West since it was established in 2019 include the revamped Stockport Interchange, Capital&Centric’s Weir Mill, the 170,000 sq ft Stockport Exchange office development, and Stockport 8 – a 1,200-home scheme being delivered by ECF.
Overall, Stockport is targeting 8,000 new homes in the town centre, focusing on brownfield sites and easing the pressure on the borough’s ample Green Belt.
Credit: via Stockport Council
Cllr Mark Roberts, Leader of Stockport Council, said: ““We’ve made huge progress in Town Centre West, and now we’re ready to bring that same ambition to the area to the east of the town centre as we shape the next chapter of our town’s story.
“[The Town Centre East framework] gives us the route map for achieving our vision to double the number of new homes to 8,000, making the best use of brownfield land to significantly meet our borough’s housing needs while creating well-designed neighbourhoods that revitalise our town.”
The area mapped out in the SRF will be split across three distinct neighbourhoods, -Goyt Riverside, Hillgate, and Historic and Civic Heart.
- Goyt Riverside – transformation of the the riverside corridor into a lively residential community anchored by a new riverside park and an “interactive waterside landscape”
- Civic and Historic Heart – focuses regeneration around Piccadilly, where schemes will be expected to complement the area’s heritage
- Hillgate – featuring the uncovering of Hempshaw Brook and the creation of a green, connected neighbourhood that strengthens links with surrounding communities, according to the council.
Roberts added: “We’re investing in infrastructure that matters – a health hub, new secondary school, green spaces and connectivity – while boosting opportunities for local businesses and attracting new investment.
“It’s also about enhancing what we already have – restoring our historic charm, opening up picturesque riverside settings and improving travel routes.”
I didn’t think Stepping Hill was in the New Hospitals Programme with the DHSC and that they’d just spent a load on improvements to the existing with more planned. Who’s paying to enable this vision to become a reality? Not saying its a bad idea just is it a realistic one given current UK finances
By Alf Full
Hope the historic buildings at Stepping Hill hospital are kept.
By Craig W
Nuclear bomb obviously going in to clear site..
By Anonymous
Maybe this is why the council keep delaying their local plan, trying to get the ducks lined up for releasing as little Greenbelt as possible. Can’t blame them given that one purpose of Greenbelt is to help realise urban regeneration, but also can’t help thinking that 8000 homes in the town centre is about numbers more than actual need. Good to see they’re starting to properly address social infrastructure a well as just homes though.
By Anonymous
A replacement for Stepping Hill Hospital may well be needed but just look how long it has taken the Department of Health to recognise the needed to rebuild (replace) North Manchester General Hospital – over 30 years and counting!
And given the dire state the North Manchester hospital buildings are in (and have been in for that 30 year period) plus the off the scale levels of health deprivation the hospital serves it should not have taken that long for any Government from 1995 onwards to accept the case for a rebuild. So all I can say to Stockport is the best of luck with developing the business case. Don’t get your hopes up that anything will be accepted this side of 2050.
By Anonymous
A rubber stamp is about all this will amount to
By F Perry
A new hospital to replace Stepping Hill. Pye in the sky.
By Anonymous
Where exactly is the Goyt Riverside in respect of these proposals.
By Anthony Ashton
Which is great but they’re simply NOT affordable to most of Stockport’s hard working population.
By Anonymous
Don’t mess with the beautiful architecture we have.it is incredibly important to save our heritage.
By Anonymous
No such thing as “ample” green belt.. your words betray you as a heathen.. you mean nature, wildlife, woodland.. the words of a homunculus
By Wild kind
@Wild Kind. If you pop round the M60 to Rochdale you’ll find ‘ample’ greenbelt, in fact, its about 63% of all land, so much that unsurprisingly there’s large amounts close to the 5 rail stations to Manchester Victoria, and the lots of the upland greenbelt is subject to sheep farming which denudes the land so it catches fire and amplifies flood events.
By Rich X
@ Wild Kind (September 18, 2025 at 6:34 am)
Nature, wildlife and woodland are all important, undoubtedly, and are all relevant planning matters which the council must have regard to. But protecting them is not one of the purposes of the green belt.
By Anonymous
What about Doctor’s surgeries, health centres, or do they expect to overload existing facilities?
By Ste Party
Following a meeting with the environment agency earlier this year, along with representatives of Stockport Council in relation to flooding within Stockport, we were told that Stockport has a flood risk assessment that anticipates the town centre could in fact one day be under water due to a severe flooding incident, but yet we have major investments going into riverside accommodation and “interactive waterside landscapes” – has no one taken any learnings from what happened at Meadow Mill in January – people could not escae the building safely and their homes became almost worthless
By Anonymous
Well this is uninspiring to say the least, 0 self build homes or any real forward thinking other than the standard rubbish you always get from these self of srfs. Hopefully they will listen in the next stages at the people providing them with solid community beneficial and progressive ideas instead of ignoring them. One can hope, this may seem good to some but the reality is, they can, could and should do better. Don’t accept the middle road. Better is possible
By Dan
Many of the questions people ask in these comments could be answered just by reading the document. I’ve got vested interests in it so sat up late last night reading it. https://www.stockport.gov.uk/topic/stockport-town-centre-east-strategic-regeneration-framework-srftce
It doesn’t propose a new hospital. It says, a the top of page 103 as part of its People First and Community principle: “Healthcare – with limited GP provision
within the Town Centre present, the scale of population growth will necessitate new provision to be made available. A new health hub is proposed that caters for primary care needs but also accommodates some Foundation Trust requirements from the Stepping Hill Hospital estate. Dentist provision will also need to be considered.”
Goyt Riverside- there’s a map on page 147 showing where it (and the other 2) neighbourhoods are. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that it is mostly the areas to the side of the River Goyt.
Also as part of its People First and Community principle, on page 103, it says: “Affordable Homes – Providing affordable housing in Stockport Town Centre East is crucial for fostering a vibrant, inclusive,
and sustainable community. It ensures that people from all walks of life, including key workers, young adults, and families, can afford to live in the heart of the town, supporting local businesses and contributing to the area’s economic vitality.”
Flooding- you’re right this is an issue (@anonymous, September 18, 2025 at 12:39 pm). It gets covered a lot under their Climate Change Resilience and Sustainability principle but from what I can tell this isn’t much more than a plan to come up with a plan at this stage.
By the light of the moon