Oldham wants to leave Andy Burnham’s enormous housing scheme – what does that mean?
Oldham Council is seeking to withdraw from Andy Burnham's Places for Everyone (PfE) housing scheme, which aims to build 170,000 homes across Greater Manchester, including 11,500 in Oldham. The council's decision could have significant implications for housing targets, greenbelt protection, and cross-borough projects like Atom Valley.
Oldham Council voted Wednesday to request withdrawal from Greater Manchester’s decade-in-the-making housing blueprint, Places for Everyone, a move that could force the region to find space for an extra 2,700 homes a year and jeopardise the £1 billion Atom Valley regeneration scheme.
The council will now write to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner asking her to revoke the joint development plan that earmarks 170,000 new homes across nine boroughs, including 11,500 in Oldham. Rayner has given no indication whether she will approve the unprecedented request, which officers warn would leave Oldham without any statutory local plan and exposed to even higher Whitehall housing targets.
Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors joined forces to pass the motion, arguing the scheme sacrifices cherished green-belt sites such as Beal Valley and Bottom Field Farm while failing to guarantee affordable housing or the doctors, schools and dentists needed to serve new communities. “This system is broken,” Liberal Democrat councillor Sam Al-Hamdani told the chamber. “We need a different system that actually takes into account what people need when we build these houses - the GPs, the dentists, the schools.”
Labour leaders countered that quitting the plan would strip the borough of protections and push annual housing delivery from 680 to 1,049 homes, encouraging piecemeal development across the green belt. Council officers and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) say Oldham would be left “planning-blind” for years while a replacement local plan is drawn up, putting at risk cross-boundary projects including Stakehill, a key component of the Atom Valley tech hub promising 20,000 skilled jobs across Rochdale, Oldham and Bury.
Salford mayor Paul Dennett, GMCA lead for Places for Everyone, warned the vote creates “uncertainty and risks” for the entire programme and leaves the remaining eight boroughs to absorb Oldham’s share of housing need. “It is very concerning to hear that one of the PfE councils is considering requesting the Secretary of State revokes it,” Dennett wrote in November. GMCA insists the plan “is the best line of defence against costly unplanned development” and maximises brown-field reuse while safeguarding most green spaces.
Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester’s mayor, pledged to seek a compromise, telling BBC Radio Manchester: “I do not think it’s in Oldham’s interest to rip everything up. I think we need to find common ground… to see if we can define what the brownfield-land-first policy looks like in Oldham.” The Ministry of Housing declined to speculate on the likelihood of revocation, saying only that any request would be judged on “individual merits”.
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