Oldham and Rochdale to Receive £40 Million for Community Regeneration

Oldham and Rochdale will share £40 million of central-government money to launch a suite of local building, housing and skills projects, ministers confirmed today.

The cash is the first award from the new Community Regeneration Partnership, a programme that lets councils and Whitehall jointly design place-based packages instead of bidding for rigid national pots.

Greater Manchester’s submission was co-written by Oldham and Rochdale councils and the combined authority after six months of door-to-door surveys, business round-tables and youth workshops.

Oldham schemes

• Housing: up to 2,000 extra homes, including 700 at Prince’s Gate, with 40 % classed as affordable or social rent.

• Private-rented sector: compulsory-licensing expansion and a £4 million improvement fund for 1,300 sub-standard houses.

• Tommyfield Market: traders offered rent-free units in the adjoining Spindles shopping centre while the 19th-century market hall is refurbished.

• George Square: a new outdoor Saturday market and events space, paid for with £1.2 million of the grant.

• Empty shops: grants of up to £50,000 to refit vacant units for independent retailers.

• One Oldham: the council’s VCSE grant programme will receive £5 million over three years to run digital-skills courses, youth employment schemes and neighbourhood sports clubs.

Rochdale schemes

• Station Gateway: the 12-acre former Kingsway retail park will be levelled and rebuilt as 215 net-zero homes, a 60-place nursery and a new through-route to the railway station.

• Creates Space: twenty empty town-centre units will be converted into low-rent studios for makers, a retail arcade and a youth-arts centre run by the council’s cultural service.

• Hopwood Hall College: one 1960s block demolished and replaced with a four-storey timber-frame building that adds 200 higher-education and access-course places; £10 million comes from the regeneration grant and £6 million from the college’s capital budget.

• Sports: £3 million earmarked for new 3G pitches at Matthew Moss and Falinge Park, plus a high-school basketball facility open to community clubs at night.

Local reaction

Local Growth Minister Alex Norris, MP for Nottingham North, visited Rochdale town hall to sign the funding agreement.

“Growth is the government’s priority and we want every person and community across the country to be part of this,” he said.

“The regeneration and improvements coming to Oldham and Rochdale will really put Greater Manchester at the forefront of our decade of national renewal.”

Councillor Arooj Shah, leader of Oldham Council, called the award “a game-changer that lets us tackle the housing crisis, breathe life back into our markets and give residents the skills for better-paid work”.

Rochdale Council leader Councillor Neil Emmott said the net-zero Gateway development would “show the North of England can lead on green growth”.

Delivery timetable

Work on Prince’s Gate and Station Gateway starts in spring 2025, with first homes ready by 2027. Market moves and shop-refit grants open for applications from January.

---

Source: Read original article