Greater Manchester’s Plan for Homes, Jobs and the Environment

What is this plan and why do we need it?

In October 2016, the Combined Authority published its first draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework. This document set out the plan to deliver 227,000 homes across Greater Manchester, and the employment land needed for the local economy over the next 20 years.

Greater Manchester has to prove it has enough land available to deliver the homes people need up until 2037. If it doesn’t, local councils will have less control over the future shape of Greater Manchester, and growth will take place without being properly planned for the benefit of all. By planning ahead, Greater Manchester can steer development in a way that works for us - delivering the coordinated, strategic improvements we need in the city region.

Greater Manchester’s local councils held a consultation on the draft GMSF in 2016 and early 2017. More than 27,000 responses were received as part of the initial consultation into the first draft of the framework. In response, a revised 2019 draft has now been written.

Greater Manchester’s Plan for Homes, Jobs, and the Environment has been put together by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which comprises the Mayor of Greater Manchester and the leaders of Greater Manchester's ten local councils.

This plan is about providing the right homes, in the right places, for people across the city region. It’s about creating jobs and improving infrastructure to ensure the future prosperity of Greater Manchester. It's also about reducing inequalities, improving the lives of residents, and transforming Greater Manchester into a world-leading city-region.

The plan focuses on making the most of Greater Manchester’s brownfield sites, prioritising redevelopment of town centres and other sustainable locations. It will also create a minimum target of 50,000 additional affordable homes – 30,000 of which will be social housing.

This rewritten plan focuses more heavily on the environment. GMCA and the ten Greater Manchester councils have ensured there is an overall reduction in proposed green belt release of more than 50% compared to the 2016 draft proposals. This has been done by removing some areas that had been earmarked for development in the previous plan, reducing the loss of Green Belt within sites, and proposing additions to the Green Belt.

MappingGM supporting preparation of the GMSF

MappingGM has supported the preparation of the GMSF through the creation of a number of maps. The first, opened in 2015 and closed in 2017, was part of a Call for Sites. Working with colleagues across GM, we asked the general public to help identify potential sites for new development. Around 1,000 sites were submitted to the website, or were digitised from public submissions via email and letter. The sites proposed were considered as potential options for both the 2016 draft GMSF and the revised 2019 draft GMSF. While this map is now archived, the submissions are still available to view on MappingGM.

The second map helped to visualise the proposals in the 2016 draft GMSF. This included a link through to the consultation and the various proposals. Though this map is also now archived, it is still available on MappingGM, and through the Consultation portal.

More recently, we have helped with the preparation of the revised 2019 draft GMSF, with static and interactive maps. Reflecting on the responses received in the last consultation, we have sought to include interactive maps within the online consultation, so that you can either view the proposals and associated data alongside the proposed policies, or open out the maps to a full screen view without losing your place in the consultation.

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