What’s next for Places for Everyone?
Last week (Friday 11 August 2023), inspectors appointed by the Secretary of State (Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) confirmed that the Places for Everyone plan was to move to the next stage of the process.
By way of background, Places for Everyone is the long-term plan for Greater Manchester (except Stockport) including the delivery of new homes and the sustainable growth of the economy and jobs. Once adopted it will form part of the relevant authority’s development plan. The evidence that underpins the Places for Everyone Plan will also inform district level plans.
The plan was first tabled as the Greater Manchester Strategic Framework (GMSF) back in 2014, kicked-started again by Andy Burnham in 2017 and has been slowly working its way through the development plan machine since then.
The latest instalment in the Places for Everyone story follows the Examination in Public (EiP) hearing sessions which took place between November 2022 and July 2023. On completion of the EiP, the Planning Inspectorate has recommended a series of ‘main modifications’ to the Plan in order for it to be fully ‘sound’ which are now to be subject to a further round of consultation – the details of which are to be confirmed in due course.
The ‘main modifications’ of note include:
The Plan outlines it will now deliver just over 175,000 new homes (equating to 10,305 homes per year) , an increase of 10,000 homes as a result of the confirmed plan period of 2022 to 2039 and based upon the Government’s standard methodology.
A modest increase in the land to removed from the green belt from 1,754 hectares (4,300 acres) to 2,213 hectares (5,500 acres).
Two notable site allocation changes:
The removal of the proposed Chat Moss site in Irlam from the plan, which was previously set to deliver 800 new homes.
The removal of proposed Global Logistics site at Manchester Airport, which was previously set to deliver 25,000 sqm of Use Class B2/B8 floorspace to support the growth of the airport.
Notwithstanding these amendments, the takeaway from this latest update from the Planning Inspectorate is that the vision, objectives and spatial strategy of Places for Everyone remain unchanged, and therefore the Plan is considered to be largely ‘sound’. As such, the majority of the development management policies set out in the Plan are now to be given increased weight in the determination of planning applications within the nine Greater Manchester authorities from this point forward.
The development management policies include the setting of density targets for different types of development as well as requiring all new homes to achieve Nationally Described Space Standards (NDSS) and be built to the ‘accessible and adaptable’ standard in Part M4(2) of the Building Regs, unless specific site conditions make this impracticable and the expectation that all new development will achieve net zero carbon by 2028. This will bring about a consistency to the quality of new homes to be developed across the plan area.
Following the final round on consultation on the ‘main modifications’, it is expected that Places for Everyone will be adopted in Spring 2024, and become part of the Development Plan for Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside and Wigan. With the preparation of a number of new local plans across the nine authorities having been paused until Places for Everyone had progressed in a meaningful way , we can also expect to see these now start to move forward again.
If you have any queries on anything relating to Places for Everyone, do get in touch with us.
