How will Greater Manchester grow? Responses to consultation published

The views of Greater Manchester’s residents and businesses on how land could be used to put homes and jobs in the right places have been made public.

Responses to a consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) are available to see from today (Monday 7 March) and can be viewed here.

More than 16,000 people were written to across GM and invited to comment on the GMSF options as well as submit a site they believe could be developed.

Councillor Sue Derbyshire, Greater Manchester lead for housing and planning, said: "The Greater Manchester Spatial Framework will help the city-region to determine how we use land in future.

"This means outlining how many new homes we need and how much land is required for new businesses and employment but it also means looking at how we can do this in a way that creates attractive places that people want to live and work in.

"We want to make sure that local people as well as developers and landowners in the city-region have as many opportunities as possible to provide feedback on the framework as it develops.

"Publishing the responses to the consultation and the sites that have been suggested for development is another important step in ensuring local people are involved in creating the framework."

The 10 Greater Manchester councils are working together to develop a joint spatial framework which will identify the land needed to meet housing and business needs over the next twenty years and manage the supply of land across the city-region.

Once complete, the framework will also outline the transport and other infrastructure improvements needed to meet Greater Manchester’s ambitions for more jobs and housing.

Greater Manchester consulted residents and businesses on the draft vision, strategic objectives and a set of options outlining the number of homes and employment sites needed and the potential impact each of these could have on economic growth.

The consultation ran from 9 November 2015 to 11 January 2016 and, while the results have not yet been analysed in detail, the responses are being published for others to see.

The consultation period was also used to gather information about potentially suitable development sites from landowners and developers as well as residents and local councillors.

This call for sites will help to determine whether there are areas of land available for development that individual districts are not currently aware of.

Any sites identified will then be assessed to see if they are suitable, available and achievable and comply with the policies being developed for the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.

This process is only just starting and GM’s leaders have not formed views as to whether the sites are suitable – but those suggested to date can be viewed here. Sites can still be suggested by submitting them via an interactive map.

Once the responses to the consultation have been analysed, a report will go to the leaders of Greater Manchester’s local authorities to decide on the next steps. This is likely to take place in April 2016.

Key facts about the consultation and call for sites:

• More than 16,000 emails and letters were sent out to key stakeholders, organisations and local people across GM to invite them to comment on the consultation or submit a site (accompanied by press releases, website banners and Twitter messages).
• We received more than 170 responses to the consultation on the GMSF vision, strategy and strategic options. These will all be made public through the GMCA website and consultation portal.
• We received more than 600 suggested sites for new homes or employment which will be made public on the GM map.
• Of these, the majority of sites submitted were for new homes, although office, manufacturing and warehousing uses were also suggested.
• Sites were suggested in all 10 of the GM districts and the GM Map allows people to see where the sites are, their size and uses suggested by the proposer.