Andy Burnham to ‘reach out’ to Oldham rebels and ‘compromise’ on housing plan

Andy Burnham will ‘reach out’ to ‘compromise’ with anti-Places for Everyone (PfE) councillors in Oldham after they decided to leave the housing plan.

Oldham council narrowly voted to request permission to withdraw from PfE, the mayor’s 15-year development blueprint covering nine Greater Manchester boroughs, on Wednesday night (February 12).

The plan has been controversial in some towns as it allows developers to build on sections of the green belt, but has a ‘brownfield land first’ policy.

Stockport voted to leave PfE in late 2020, before it was formally adopted in spring last year. Now, Oldham is attempting to follow them.

One of the longest-standing opponents to PfE in Oldham is Lib Dem leader Howard Sykes, who told Wednesday’s debate: “Expensive luxury housing on the greenbelt is not the answer to the housing crisis. This will be a developer and profit-led plan, not a people and need based plan.

“Is Labour really suggesting that the best Oldham can do is back a plan that was designed in Manchester ten years ago, with no idea about the local challenges we face? I think we can do better.”

Labour council leader, Arooj Shah, said it would ‘be a mistake’ to withdraw, arguing without a local plan in place, the borough would be left with ‘no protection’ of greenbelt land and the council would have to find space for an additional 1,000 homes under Labour’s new housing targets.

Oldham council executives will now write to housing minister Angela Rayner to ask to leave PfE, with the deputy Prime Minister having the final say.
Faced with a second borough’s exit, the mayor has now offered to ‘reach out’ and thrash out a ‘compromise’ in Oldham.

“I think we need to find common ground where we can and what I will be doing is reaching out to opposition leaders with Arooj Shah to see if we can define what the brownfield land first policy looks like Oldham,” Andy Burnham said on BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday.

“I think that’s where we can come to a compromise. I do not think it’s in Oldham’s interest to rip everything up.
“We are in a situation now where the government is putting forward funding to building homes and infrastructure. Oldham does not want to say it’s closed for business.

“We respect fully local democracy but when we hear what people are saying we look to see if there’s scope for compromise.”

Mr Burnham also pointed to Stockport’s withdrawal as a cautionary tale, as new government housing targets now require 809 more homes are built there annually compared to a previous metric.

He said: “What we have seen in Stockport is green belt become more vulnerable to developers as they do not have a plan and it’s easier for people to access green belt. I do not think that’s what people in Oldham voted for, that’s not what they want.”