Planning & Housing Commission

The Commission’s membership includes six Councillors from across Greater Manchester and five non local authority members who offer their expertise in private and public sector housing, planning and infrastructure issues. Representatives of the Government Office for the North West; the Environment Agency; the Homes and Communities Agency and  the Regional Development Agency also attend meetings in an advisory capacity.

The Commission’s planned activities are set out in a three year Work Programme

The Terms of Reference of the Commission are as follows

Its objectives are to:-

• work with partners to ensure that the infrastructure of Greater Manchester has the capacity and resilience needed to support the city region’s ambitions for transformational and sustainable growth;

• develop and coordinate a spatial planning framework for Greater Manchester within the context of the Greater Manchester Strategic Plan to underpin and link districts’ Local Development Frameworks and Core Spatial Strategies; and take actions to implement this spatial framework when these actions are appropriately taken at the sub regional level;

• coordinate and manage joint Local Development Framework activity across the combined administrative area on behalf of the 10 local planning authorities, in circumstances where this is agreed as appropriate (initially in terms of Waste and Minerals Planning);

• develop and coordinate a Greater Manchester Housing Strategy within the context of the Greater Manchester Strategic Plan and take actions to implement this strategy when these are appropriately taken at the sub regional level; and.

• determine the process for the future allocation of any pooled public sector housing resources across the combined administrative area and provide a sub-regional context for managing the scale, distribution and mix of new housing development.   
 

The local authority members of the Commission are:

Councillor Paul Andrews (Labour), Manchester City Council
Councillor Derek Antrobus (Labour), Salford City Council
Councillor Dale Mulgrew (Liberal Democrat), Rochdale Council
Councillor Michael Cornes (Conservative ), Trafford Council
Councillor Lenny Grice (Liberal Democrat), Stockport Council
Councillor Nicholas Peel (Labour), Bolton Council.

The non local authority members are:

Simon Bedford, Head of Economic Development, Drivers Jonas.
David Hardman, United Utilities
Jane Healey Brown, Associate Director, Arup
Joe Isle; Director, Strategic Development Solutions
Ian Munro, National Housing Federation and Group Chief Executive New Charter Housing Trust

Councillor Antrobus is the Chair of the Commission for 2009/2010.

Ian Munro is the Vice Chair.

Roger Ellis, Chief Executive, Rochdale Council, is the lead officer for this Commission.

The Commission is due to meet on

22nd September 2010
8th December 2010

March 2011
June 2011

We are currently preparing the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework to underpin the delivery of the Greater Manchester Strategy.  As part of the process of preparation, members of the AGMA family are being consulted upon the key issues which the GMSF should address and the outcomes it should deliver.  Three initial Topic Papers have been produced (Introduction, Low Carbon and Housing) with further Topic Papers looking at the Economy, Town Centres and Infrastructure under development. These will be circulated to partnerships and groups within the AGMA family in September.
Comments on Topic Papers can be sent to phc@agma.gov.uk

PPS25 (Development and Flood Risk), requires flood risk to be taken into account in all stages of the planning process.  Strategic Flood Risk Assessments are one of the main documents to be used as the evidence base for Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) and Sustainability Appraisals.

As Greater Manchester continues its renaissance, there is a significant challenge to delivering growth in urban areas, building sustainable communities, restoring degraded environments and providing high quality development that is economically and environmentally sustainable in the face of climate change and future flood risk. These challenges provide the basis for the Sub Regional SFRA.

Greater Manchester lies within a unique context, lying within major river catchments draining from the Pennines into the regional centre and then into the Manchester Ship Canal, flood risk from these rivers is a cross boundary issue which needs to be addressed at the sub regional catchment and cross boundary level.

Manchester like many major cities in the world including large parts of the South East and London is vulnerable to flood risk and climate change. However, directing new development away from existing communities is not a viable option. Nevertheless, flood risk is recognised as an important issue which provides both opportunities (e.g. with strong links to green infrastructure, for which AGMA is currently preparing a strategic Framework) as well as a challenge to building sustainable communities.

The SFRA, as a living process provides the vehicle for AGMA, Greater Manchester districts, the Environment Agency and the relevant utility company (United Utilities) to not only comprehensively assess flood risk in a consistent and cross boundary manner but having done this, to work together in a collaborative manner to manage risk and deliver water management solutions.  

Confidence Mapping

The Environment Agency (EA) holds national broad scale models of most watercourses and much of the coastline that are intended to broadly define the areas at risk of fluvial and coastal flooding in the UK. As part of more detailed river modelling studies undertaken by the EA (such as Strategic Flood Risk Mapping (SFRM) studies) Flood Zones have been refined along many watercourse reaches within the Greater Manchester area.

As part of the sub-regional SFRA, hybrid SFRA Flood Zones were created covering the entire sub region. The SFRA Flood Zones were created using flood outlines from detailed river models where available and in all other locations, broad scale model outlines were used. The SFRA Flood Zones presented the best available information at that time.

The Flood Zone Confidence Maps are intended to be used by planners as a tool for identifying areas of high, medium or low confidence in the data that has been used to derive fluvial Flood Zones across the sub-region. The confidence assigned to a Flood Zone demonstrates the level of detail and the number of assumptions made when deriving the Flood Zones. The maps can be
used to determine reaches of river where further, more detailed work is required to refine Flood Zones and therefore where resources should be directed.

The maps should be used when allocating development sites and for Development Control activities. For example, if a site is being considered for allocation and is shown to be in an area of Flood Zone that has low confidence, work should be instigated to quantify and define the risk at that location in more detail (see the Greater Manchester SFRA Level 2 Framework Document).

SuDs Map

As part of the sub-regional SFRA, a series of maps delineating the solid geology, superficial geology and groundwater vulnerability of the Greater Manchester area were presented. The purpose of the maps was threefold:

• Firstly, to demonstrate where geological conditions may be conducive to groundwater flooding;
• Secondly, to provide information regarding the general suitability of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) across the sub-region and
• To help planners in each of the ten districts in Greater Manchester to make decisions regarding the suitability of SuDS techniques into developments at an early stage.

To increase the usability of the mapping and the SFRA, a SuDS guidance map was created. SuDS are a sequence of management practices and control structures designed to drain surface water in a more sustainable fashion than some conventional techniques. Sustainable drainage is a concept that makes environmental quality and people a priority in drainage design, construction
and maintenance.

The SuDS approach includes measures to reduce surface water runoff at source, prevent pollution and provide a range of physical structures designed to receive the runoff. There are many SuDS design options that can be tailored to fit all types of development. They can also be designed to improve amenity and biodiversity in developed areas.

Greater Manchester Strategic Housing Market Assessment

The Greater Manchester Strategic Housing Market Assessment explores the issues affecting housing markets in Greater Manchester and identifies future housing requirements, placing AGMA in an informed position to develop a strategic framework that will direct growth, investment and intervention to ensure delivery of the required housing offer. This research complements and adds to work conducted at individual Authority-level as well as the regional assessment recently completed for the NWRA/4NW. 

We must acknowledge that throughout the commission and following it the economic climate has changed significantly.  The majority of the data, findings and recommendations hold true and will be a useful source of intelligence in informing strategic housing decisions.  The update of the key data used in the original report has now been completed and is attached alongside the original document below.

For further information contact Pete Schofield at pete.schofield@neweconomymanchester.com

The delivery of zero carbon buildings and decentralised energy presents not only major challenges but also opportunities. The Manchester City Region is well placed with our recent City Region status, designation as a Low Carbon Economic Area for the built Environment (LCEA) and track record for innovation and enterprise.

This study was commissioned in response to this challenge and the opportunity to realise the benefits of a co-ordinated response by the ten districts. The National Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 1 supplement on planning and climate change provides the context for the study. Whilst information on feasibility, implementation and technologies will continue to evolve the study represents a first step towards putting in place a strategic sub regional framework and evidence base to support emerging Core Strategies and other development projects across the City Region.

The strategic objectives of the study were to:

• Provide strategic evidence to enable Core Strategies to set minimum targets for low and zero carbon energy;
• Identify opportunities for linking new development and supporting energy infrastructure with existing communities;
• Identify the most appropriate energy mix for delivering new development and growth aspirations across Greater Manchester;
• Clearly set out the spatial planning actions required to deliver this ‘new’ critical infrastructure, supported by targets for low and zero carbon energy.

Targets arising from the study should clearly relate to a broad framework for achieving zero carbon buildings by 2016 and 2019 and on and off site delivery mechanisms.

If you require any further information, please contact:

Dr Garreth Bruff
Policy & Programme Mananger - Planning & Housing Commison
e-mail: g.bruff@agma.gov.uk
tel: 0753 872 1714