New mayor makes move to rewrite city housing plan
ANDY BURNHAM CHARGES SALFORD’S MAYOR WITH TACKLING HOMELESSNESS
GREATER Manchester’s new mayor Andy Burnham has set about radically rewriting the region’s controversial green belt masterplan.
The former MP has promised a major shift in the way the region approaches housing and has appointed Salford’s mayor, Paul Dennett, to oversee the rewrite.
Mr Burnham has also put him in charge of tackling homelessness and focusing housing investment away from up-scale apartments in Manchester city centre.
The region’s new figurehead had included a raft of housing-related pledges in his election manifesto, including one to completely redraw the contentious Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.
That draft masterplan would have changed the green belt boundary around the conurbation in order to allow for new housing over the next two decades.
But when it was unveiled last year, communities affected by the proposals reacted with outrage – and Mr Burnham promised to ‘radically’ alter it as a result.
Mr Dennett will be in charge of ensuring that happens, while also changing the focus of Greater Manchester’s £300m ‘housing investment fund.’
The use of that pot of cash, handed to bosses under the region’s devolution deal, has been criticised, with money largely put into upmarket city centre apartments.
Mr Burnham wants to re-focus it towards affordable housing, spread more evenly across the region.
Salford mayor’s will also be in charge of overseeing a drive to wipe out rough sleeping by 2020.
Announcing Mr Dennett’s appointment at the Hive, an affordable housing project for young people in Salford, Mr Burnham said he was ‘signalling a change’ in the region’s housing policy.
“As mayor I am going to focus on tackling the housing crisis and ensure truly affordable housing is available for everyone in Greater Manchester,” he added.
“I will listen to communities and oversee a radical rewrite of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.
“I will keep those high ambitions for the homes and jobs we need but there will be a substantial reduction in the loss of greenbelt.
“Our plan will build the right kind of homes in the right places.
“I’m also issuing a call to developers to work with me to revitalise and reshape our town centres. I want Andy Burnham our towns to be residential centres that are fit for the future.
“As Salford city mayor, Paul is driving the development of social and affordable homes across the city.
“His zero-tolerance approach to poverty and commitment to making sure local people have access to decent, truly affordable homes make him the right person for this role.
“I’m confident he will help me deliver the homes Greater Manchester needs.”
Mr Dennett, who has overseen a push to build more council housing in Salford since being elected last year, said he intended to ‘hit the ground running.’
“Refocusing the Greater Manchester Housing Fund as monies are recycled will be critical to building truly affordable housing within Greater Manchester and meeting housing needs,” he said.
“Similarly, Andy has rightly pledged to eradicate rough sleeping within Greater Manchester by 2020 and I will continue to build on the works of the Homelessness Action Network and the recently launched Mayor’s Homelessness Fund.
“A home is a basic human right and any civilised society should look to meet this need, irrespective of how much money someone earns.
“The Greater Manchester Spatial Framework also provides a unique opportunity within Greater Manchester to provided much-needed homes our residents can afford, connect and strategically integrate the city-region, while giving all our residents the best chance of building stable homes, providing for jobs and opportunities, and creating communities we can all be proud of.”