Town halls may lose brownfield sites cash

AMULTI-MILLION pound pot to help bring brownfield sites across Greater Manchester up to scratch for development could be pulled by the government, a council chief has said.

Boroughs across the region are in line for a share of the £68m housing package.

Of that, £50m is earmarked for the remediation of previously-developed land.

But this was based on the number of new houses included in the original Greater Manchester Spatial Framework masterplan, which has been reworked following an outcry over the number of green belt sites earmarked for new homes.

The new 20-year blueprint, being developed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, was due to go out to consultation in July.

But it was delayed until October after new figures revealed the region’s population was not due to grow by as much as had been suggested.

And with the conurbation’s housing need being closely linked to future size of its population, there are now fears the government will renege on the deal if the new document makes provision for fewer houses.

Bury council leader Rishi Shori told a town hall meeting Greater Manchester leaders were waiting to hear whether the government’s offer would still stand.

He said: “There’s a potential conflict between what we want in the GMSF because of the housing need and what the government’s aspiration is.”

He added that the council would be left ‘between a rock and a hard place’ if funding were to be pulled, as it would still need to build more homes on brownfield sites, but without the funds to make them suitable for development.

Coun Shori told committee members the combined authority was still ‘seeking clarity’ over the government’s house building expectations.

But he added: “What I can say, of course, is we have looked at absolutely minimising the amount of green belt lost in Bury.”