The Central Growth Cluster will create over 90,000 new jobs. Employment creation will be generated through the regional centre with direct opportunities through the Oxford Road Corridor, Manchester Piccadilly and Salford’s Innovation Triangle comprising Media City and The Quays (including future growth at Wharfside), Salford Crescent and Salford Royal Foundation Trust.
The alignment of skills provision, across a range of levels and institutions will ensure a pipeline supply of skilled Greater Manchester residents to meet the expanding jobs markets, notably in digital, creative, media and broadcasting, and professional services.
The development of this growth cluster will be underpinned by the expansion and development of the public transport infrastructure, (delivery of HS2, NPR, Quality Bus Corridor and Metrolink extensions), which will connect people in all parts of the conurbation to the regional centre, enabling more parts of Greater Manchester to benefit from economic prosperity generated at the core.
The introduction of HS2 and NPR services, could make Manchester Piccadilly one of the best connected and productive locations in the North of England. The area has the potential to deliver 40,000 new and sustainable jobs, 13,000 new homes and close to a million square metres of commercial development.
The new skills being created in health innovation and R&D are being supported by our world class universities and plans for the redevelopment at North Manchester Hospital. Planning is underway to replace the current hospital buildings with a new hospital, which is proving to be an important catalyst for change, but the approach being taken by partners goes far beyond this narrow ambition. The new health and wellbeing campus is based on a fundamental rethink of the role of the hospital within the context of all the health and care services provided for residents.
New homes being created under the Central Growth Cluster will provide 58,000 new units on brownfield land. The housing created in the central area (around Victoria North, North Campus, the Eastern Gateway and Salford Crescent), maximise the proximity of the planned developments to the public transport networks. The Central Growth Cluster also spreads into the northern tip of Trafford offering further significant housing growth potential.
The Victoria North programme is the single largest residential development and regeneration programme in Greater Manchester. Some 15,000 low carbon new homes will be delivered over the next 15 years through the repurposing and densification of under-utilised and brownfield land in a well-connected and sustainable location, at the core of the conurbation.
Building on the growth of the city centre, and taken together with the plans for Manchester’s Eastern Gateway, and major planned investment into the North Manchester General Hospital campus, Victoria North presents a major opportunity to rebalance and level up the northern neighbourhoods of the Regional Centre, facilitating sustained residential and population growth whilst knitting together a series of strategic national and local objectives concerning affordable housing, net zero, place creation, inclusive growth, health and education.
Our unique leisure and culture offer in Greater Manchester will be expanded upon and made more accessible through the Central Growth Cluster. Opportunities in the cultural and creative industries will be further grown, building on the existing major cluster in the regional centre, and new facilities such as The Factory. Major sporting, leisure and recreational infrastructure around the Eastern Gateway area will help drive Greater Manchester’s tourism offer, supported by enhanced connectivity through HS2 at Piccadilly.
