What do Angela Rayner’s planning reforms mean for Greater Manchester?

The new Labour government has been in office for around a month - and in its first few weeks it’s made a series of major policy announcements on energy, transport, and public finances.

Perhaps its largest reform was unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner earlier this week, as the Ashton-under-Lyne MP - who is also the housing minister - revealed sweeping changes to the planning system on Wednesday (July 30).

While the reforms won’t mean the model of how someone bids for and obtains planning permission changes, it will mean the method by which planning decisions are reached changes.

That’s been done through a review of building on green belt land, which now means councils can be forced to start building on the green belt if they have not ‘met its identified need for housing, commercial, or other development through other means’ - i.e. building on brownfield land.

The reforms also include alterations to the Right to Buy scheme and ‘Golden Rules’ for New Towns the government hopes to pop up across Britain.

But the most immediate shake-up was a return of mandatory local housing targets - which were previously advisory.

It means officials in Whitehall are telling councils how many homes should be built in their borough every year.

“Today marks a significant step to getting Britain building again,” Ms Rayner told the Commons.

“Our decisive reforms to the planning system correct the errors of the past and set us on our way to tackling the housing crisis, delivering 1.5 million homes for those who really need them.”

The new targets are not just mandatory - they’ve also been revised upwards under a new formula.

Greater Manchester is subject to the same revised targets as everywhere else, even though there have been pockets of intense development in parts of the region over the last decade, such as Manchester city centre.

And the new targets are also higher, in most cases, than those set by Greater Manchester’s Places For Everyone plan (PfE).

PfE is Greater Manchester’s development blueprint.

It sets out how many homes are expected to be built - and where they should go within each borough with a series of ‘allocations’.

Each allocation is location-specific, but building homes under PfE is not just confined to allocated zones - smaller pockets of development are expected to take place across every borough too.

As it’s a Greater Manchester-wide plan, it’s meant that some areas are taking on more housebuilding - like Salford and Manchester - in order to spare green belt land in more rural areas.

It was formally adopted in March.

But getting to that point has not been easy. It was first discussed in 2014, before Andy Burnham was elected mayor, and led to years of wrangling between politicians and residents.

In late 2020, Stockport dropped out of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework - as it was called first - so a ‘plan of nine’ went ahead, which was called Places for Everyone.

Even now it’s been adopted by each of the nine councils, it’s still subject to a judicial review from campaigners.

For the moment, officials in the mayor’s office are said to believe PfE won’t need alterations until its next review, in five years’ time.

It’s thought Greater Manchester might be in a more advantageous position than other areas of England, as other Combined Authority areas like the Liverpool City Region could be asked to draw up their own version of PfE.

If that were to happen, it means Greater Manchester would have effectively gained a head-start on dividing up land to be built on.

But at the same time, Angela Rayner’s new reforms, which make it easier to build on the green belt are now up for public consultation - so the question remains how much of Greater Manchester’s green belt might be built on.

PfE has a brownfield-first approach, i.e. encouraging developers to use parcels of land which were formerly industrial or commercial sites, before setting their sights on the green belt.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) also administers a £150 million brownfield housing fund, which gives loans to developers to kick-start projects.

That being said, the mechanism the GMCA uses to help development get off the ground also highlights one issue with Ms Rayner’s targets.

While they have been set centrally and there is a desire from politicians of every party to build more homes, they require private developers to come in and take on the schemes.

That means council officials may have to work more closely with developers to encourage them to invest in their part of the world in order to hit the new targets, or it could mean more planning permissions are given by committees.

They are among the many unanswered questions the Deputy Prime Minister’s reforms produce - others include whether meeting these targets depends on increasing density at existing PfE sites or finding more locations for development alongside PfE allocations.

One certainty the reforms have created is about the top-line goals.

The headline figure for Greater Manchester is that it needs to build 17,705 more homes by 2029 than first planned.

PfE and Stockport’s own local plan aimed to construct 11,402 homes annually between 2025 and 2030 - and the new Rayner targets set this at 14,943 by the next General Election, which can’t be later than 2029.

With 3,541 more homes now promised for the city-region every year for the foreseeable future, we examined what’s already hoped for under Greater Manchester’s existing PfE plan - and how those targets have changed under Angela Rayner.

It should be noted that both the numbers included in Manchester’s existing PfE plan and Ms Rayner’s revised figures are targets - and hitting those will depend on developers being found and planning permission being secured in each case.

Oldham

Initially, Oldham was expected to build 680 homes every year until 2030.

Now, national targets say this should be 1,049.

The borough has a few sites lined up to deliver housing, though, suggesting it may be well-placed to handle the increase.

They include 1,450 allocated to Broadbent Moss, some 480 at Beal Valley, just 30 on Bottom Field Farm in Woodhouses, 138 in Chew Brook Vale, another 460 in Cowlishaw, 175 at Coat Pit Lane will see 175, 60 at Rosary Road and a shared site with Rochdale called Stakehill earmarked for 1,680.

Bolton

Bolton’s original PfE target for this period was 787 houses annually. It’s now 1,340.

Currently, the borough does not have specific major housing developments listed in PfE - its three specified development sites are all for industrial use or warehousing - but residential development is still expected to happen.

However, with a near-doubling of its targets under Ms Rayner’s announcement, it remains unclear if a specific housing development will need to be drawn up to accommodate the extra homes.

Bury

Bury was expected to build 452 homes every year until 2030, but this would rise in the second half of the PfE lifespan, which runs until 2039. Its new target is 1,054.

Unlike Bolton, several large-scale housing developments have been allocated in the borough.

The largest of those is Elton Reservoir, which is set to see 3,500 homes and community facilities built - and there are plans in the works for a new tram stop to go in, too.

Elsewhere, 1,250 homes are eyed for Walshaw, and two sites shared with Rochdale called the ‘Northern Gateway’ should see 2,550 built across the pair.

Added to that are another 140 homes set for Seedfield.

Again, with its target doubling, it remains unclear how officials in Bury will respond - one option is to find more land to build on, another is to increase the density of the development on existing PfE sites.

Manchester

The big builders under PfE, Manchester was expected to construct 3,533 homes every year until 2039.

The new Rayner target is below that at 2,686.

Both figures mean that development will continue in the city, and it’s not thought the new target means Manchester will scale back its housebuilding ambitions.

Previously, council leader Bev Craig said the city centre is expected to get more dense as the decade progresses – with plans for more skyscrapers in the works.

Rochdale

Rochdale is similar to Oldham in many ways. Its initial PfE target was a comparable 616, and it’s shot up to a similar total of 1,031.

And the similarities don’t end there, as it also has numerous sites earmarked for housing development under PfE.

There is the aforementioned Northern Gateway pair, shared with Bury, promising 2,550, and the Stakehill shared spot with Oldham with 1,680.

It has seven more locations in its own boundaries, too.

They include Bamford in Norden promising room for 450 new houses, with 125 homes targeted for Castleton Sidings, and another 250 at Crimble Mill.

There’s also 300 set to come to Smithy Bridge, 250 for Newhey Quarry, another 200 for Roch Valley, and 550 for Trows Farm.

There is now uncertainty in both Rochdale and Oldham if the surging targets mean more housing development sites will need to be found - or existing PfE plans changed to accommodate more homes.

Salford

Salford is similar to Manchester in that it’s a big builder for Greater Manchester - and its new Rayner target is lower than its existing PfE target. PfE says Salford should build 1,658 homes annually up to 2030, Angela Rayner says it should be 1,475 every year until 2029.

Salford only has two major sites listed for development, though.

Hazelhurst Farm, promising 400 homes, and land just east of Boothstown - next to RHS Garden Bridgewater - set for 300.

It doesn’t look like the new targets should change too much in this part of the region.

Stockport

Stockport spectacularly pulled out of PfE in late 2020 because of Conservative fears smaller areas like Heald Green, Bredbury, and Romiley, would have had to “bear the brunt of mass development”.

That meant it had to pursue its own local plan - with the old government formula requiring it to build 1,097 homes every year. It now has to construct 1,906.

It has yet to adopt its own local plan, as it unveiled a draft in early July - just two weeks before Angela Rayner’s reforms were announced.

It may need to go back to the drawing board to accommodate the extra 809 homes demanded by the new government target.

Tameside

One of the biggest jumps in target is seen in Tameside, which has gone from 485 to 1,223 with the revisions.

It only has two sites specifically earmarked for housing development in PfE - and Godley Green is one of the biggest in the city-region at 2,350 homes.

The other is just south of Hyde, which should see 440 built. Even with two large sites identified in PfE, and more development expected in the borough, it remains unclear how Tameside will find room for the 738 extra houses it needs to build every year.

Trafford

Trafford is another big builder - taking on 1,122 homes every year under PfE.

But that’s jumped to 1,607 under the new goals.

While Trafford isn’t blessed with a litany of sites akin to Oldham and Rochdale, what it does have are two huge developments.

The New Carrington masterplan proposes a new town with 5,000 new homes, and the Timperley Wedge envisions 2,500.

This part of Greater Manchester is in a similar position to most in that it now faces a question of needing to either increase density at its identified PfE sites - or bring more developments forward soon.

Wigan

Wigan’s target was 972 home completions every year until 2030.

It’s now facing doing 1,572 annually until 2029.

Similar to Trafford, it doesn’t have a huge amount of locations, but it will aim to build a lot in those it does.

Locations include Mosley Common, earmarked for 1,100 houses, with another 600 set for Pocket Nook, on the border with Warrington.

Wigan’s in a similar position to the rest of Greater Manchester in that it now faces a question of whether to expand the number of homes targeted for already-identified PfE sites, or whether to bring forward more developments on other parcels of land.

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