The massive plans to boost five towns left behind by the Manchester boom

Major regeneration plans for five Greater Manchester towns are about to receive a massive boost. 

Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig and the GMCA has approved ‘a bumper batch’ of new mayoral development corporations (MDCs) for Oldham, Bolton, Middleton, and Ashton and Stalybridge. These regeneration partnerships help local areas fast-track major projects and bring in private and public investment to cover the costs of ‘ambitious’ schemes. 

The Stockport MDC, set up by former mayor Andy Burnham, has been widely lauded as a big success after it brought more housing and the transport interchange to Stockport town centre. 

Ms Craig said: “The five MDCs show the breadth we’re trying to cover and how we’re supporting economic development across our towns.” 

The new MDCs were approved by the region’s council bosses at a GMCA meeting at Wigan town hall on Friday, September 25, and will now be sent to the Secretary of State to begin the formal process. It’s estimated they’ll officially be launched early in 2027. 

In a public consultation in each of the five towns, the MDCs saw widespread backing by locals. 

In Oldham more than 80 percent of local residents who contributed to the survey supported the idea. The Oldham MDC includes the SportsTown around Boundary Park stadium, a £70m masterplan for a new health and sports campus. It also focuses on the regeneration plans for the town centre – where ultimately 2,000 homes are due to be built – alongside Tommyfield Park and the recently opened Northern Roots urban farm. 

Ms Craig noted the approval came ‘in an era when Oldham doesn’t always get credit for the positive and great things that it’s doing’, following several major investments in the town centre, such as the recently opened market. 

Speaking at the GMCA meeting, councillor Arooj Shah, representing Oldham council, said: “[The MDC] brings together a great series of ambitious projects. It brings much-needed homes, but also will improve the health outcomes of the people that live there because it’ll bring world class sports and health facilities to the area. 

“What’s noticeable is how many young people contributed to [the consultation]. They can see the importance of this and the impact it will have on their future lives.” 

In Tameside, a ‘transport-lead’ MDC will help to build around 3,000 new homes, including affordable housing, and improve transport links to Manchester to help economic development ‘ripple out’ from the city centre towards a Tameside commuter belt. 

Tameside’s Deputy Leader councillor Andrew McLaren said: “This is a really innovative transport-led MDC that incorporates Ashton Moss, Ashton railway station, and Stalybridge railway station where we’re going to have a corridor of really exciting growth. Ashton Railyway station is nine minutes from Manchester Victoria, Stalybridge is 13 minutes away. Manchester’s economic success has a tendency to grow upwards, now we want to see it grow outwards.” 

Coun McLaren also hinted that transport projects were being developed ‘at pace’ to increase the number and frequency of services between Ashton, Stalybridge, and Manchester. 

For Middleton, where more than 90 percent of survey respondents supported the scheme, the MDC is geared at creating 1,500 new homes, strengthening the town’s commercial and leisure offer, and improving public spaces. 

It will support what has already been described as a ‘huge momentum’ for regeneration in the town by council leader Neil Emmott. The purchase of Warwick Mill and London House, bringing the post office back to the town centre, creating a new youth facility at the Middleton Scout Hut and repurposing the Old Grammar School are projects that are already underway, and locals are ‘raring to go’ on further changes. 

Transformation is also expected in Bolton, where a total of 13 key projects will deliver up to 2,000 homes, 31,000 sqm of employment space, 300 hotel beds and serviced apartments, 14,000 sqm of food and beverage floorspace, and more than 5,000 sqm dedicated to community and leisure uses as part of the MDC. 

Bolton Council leader Akhtar Zaman said: “The proposed MDC will give us additional capacity, expertise, and influence to turn our ambitions for Bolton town centre into reality. It will also help us attract investment. Public sector funding alone will never be enough to deliver the scale of change we want to achieve.”