Delivering in local government: How Labour is building a better Greater Manchester

Labour Councils up and down the country are helping to improve the lives of their residents.

Week in, week out, Labour councils, working in partnership with the NHS, Homes England and the Labour Government, are getting things done for their local communities on the things that matter to local people.

Every week, ‘LabourList’ brings you a selection of the great work being done by Labour Councils and Labour Mayors. 

This week, as voters in Greater Manchester head for the polls,  we feature what Labour Councils and Andy Burnham as the former Labour Mayor  have delivered in the region to improve life for residents:

• Passivhaus housing project in Salford
• Illegal waste site clearance in Wigan
• Low cost, low carbon heating in Rochdale
• New affordable homes in Trafford
• Affordable housing in Manchester
• £25m boost for Bury Interchange
• More electric buses for Greater Manchester

Please send news from your council to Paul Dimoldenberg at [email protected].

Salford: Work starts on Ordsall Passivhaus scheme in Salford

Works are underway at Oldfield Basin, a new sustainable and vibrant neighbourhood on the former Regent Trading Estate brownfield site, with Eric Wright Construction appointed as the main contractor to deliver the project for ECF and Labour Salford City Council. The new neighbourhood is made up of 63 one and two-bedroom apartments and 27 three-bedroom townhouses, all meeting the Passivhaus Low Energy Building Standard.

This £29 million residential project is designed to reduce energy bills by up to 90% compared to traditional housing. This is achieved through a whole-building approach to efficient, high-quality construction, which is independently tested and verified. Completion of the new homes is expected in Spring 2028.

Wigan: Wigan Council moves forward with illegal waste site clearance

Joint efforts to clear an illegal waste site in Bickershaw have taken a big step forward with Labour Wigan Council looking to recruit a specialist contractor. The move comes as the local authority has been given assurances that the funding required to do this will be provided by central government.

All agencies agree that the work to clear the site is an urgent priority and the procurement process is underway. A single contractor is preferred to manage the complex clear-up operation and minimise disruption for residents. Over the past 12 months, the multi-agency recovery group has been working together to assess and sample the waste, manage public health risks, and identify potential contractors, costings, and licensed disposal routes – allowing them to move as quickly as possible once funding was secured. Closure orders remain in place at both Bolton House Road and the neighbouring Old Cricket Ground to prevent access, while the site will continue to be monitored for illegal activity, safety issues, vermin and environmental impacts.

Rochdale: Sewer heat recovery to warm hospital, schools and homes

Wastewater from a sewer in Rochdale is set to supply low-cost, low-carbon heating to the town’s hospital, schools, leisure centre and homes. Supported by £1 million from the Government’s Green Heat Network Fund, the project will link public buildings in the town centre as part of Labour Rochdale Council’s ongoing town centre regeneration.

A town centre sewer source heat pump was chosen as the best option, which extracts the thermal energy found in wastewater using a combination of heat exchangers and a heat pump, with an energy centre planned for the current Mecca Bingo car park near Number One Riverside in Rochdale. By removing the need for individual heat pumps, boilers and hot water tanks in buildings, the network would provide cheaper, cleaner heating, with lower energy bills and carbon emissions, with heating and hot water delivered through a heat exchanger about the size of a small gas boiler, with individual controls in each property. A business case is being prepared ahead of procurement in preparation for the 2029 start date. 

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Trafford: Affordable homes for shared ownership go on sale in Sale

Eight three-bedroom townhouses, which form part of a much larger development, The Courts, delivered by Trafford Developments and PIC Homes on the site of the former Sale Magistrates Court, will be for sale by not-for-profit housing association Irwell Valley Homes, who will take possession of the homes when construction is complete in July. 

Each energy-efficient home at Brighton Grove will offer around 1,367 square feet of living space, making them a real option for first-time buyers and young families.

Trafford Developments, part of Labour Trafford Council, is delivering a total of 84 new homes on the site alongside the Bridgewater canal. They will include 38 apartments in two blocks, 40 townhouses and six semi-detached houses.  A total of 21 will be designated as affordable, with 13 apartments for social rent and 8 for shared ownership.

Manchester: Another record year for affordable housing in Manchester

Labour Manchester City Council has achieved another record year for building new affordable homes, four years into its 10-year housing strategy for the city. 901 of the 4,766 new homes completed across the city in 2025/26 were affordable, with 439 of these available for social rent. There are around 1,450 further council, social and genuinely affordable homes already on site now with around 2,000 more such homes ready to start.

The Council set out its 10-year housing strategy in 2022 with a commitment to help deliver 36,000 homes across all tenures and areas of the city, with at least 10,000 of these social, council or genuinely affordable homes, and at least 3,000 of these in the city centre. With 2,430 affordable homes already completed and a strong pipeline of future projects already either under construction, with planning permission and being readied for construction, or on the horizon, there is every confidence that these targets will be met or exceeded.

Headline schemes being brought forward across the city include 400 new homes for social rent in Wythenshawe town centre, 303 affordable homes as part of the Brewery Gardens development on the former Boddington’s site in the city centre, 271 new homes for social rent and shared ownership in Charlestown and 212 affordable homes in Moss Side.

Bury: £25m boost for Bury Interchange

A redeveloped transport hub for Bury and plans for residential development on neighbouring land will receive funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which has approved £25.1m of City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement funding for Bury Interchange. The scheme forms an integral part of Labour Bury Council’s town centre ambitions and will make the bus and tram station more accessible.

The £25.1m will be spent on delivering the project’s first phase, featuring a new pedestrian footbridge and access improvements, which received planning permission last year. Additionally, the funding will go towards detailed design work for phase two, which includes a residential development. The plan for residential, which will be affordable, is inspired by the success of a similar scheme at Stockport Interchange, the report adds.

Greater Manchester: Greater Manchester orders 125 electric buses from Northern Ireland supplier

Another 125 electric buses will be coming to Greater Manchester as the latest orders for the Bee Network are confirmed. The new fleet of yellow buses, are being built by Wrightbus, the Ballymena-based Northern Irish manufacturer. This comes after another order of 55 new electric double-decker buses was placed earlier this year, adding to the 76 previously purchased from the factory in Northern Ireland.

Of those, 33 new electric double decker buses will serve bus routes 8 and 10 making these routes, which serve Bolton, Farnworth, Pendlebury and Salford, fully electric. The other 43 vehicles will start serving the Leigh Guided Busway shortly.

By the end of the decade, the Bee Network will have a fully electric bus fleet, removing more than 76,000 tonnes of CO₂ – equivalent to the emissions linked to powering more than 9,000 homes or charging 9 billion smartphones – and 280 tonnes of NOx per year. Elsewhere, the Bee Network has also supported Scottish-based Alexander Dennis, with almost 500 buses made at the company’s Falkirk and Scarborough bases now serving Greater Manchester’s communities.

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