Manchester town hall announced the Northern Gateway expansion this year and since then more details have been coming out. It’s an ambitious project spanning Rochdale Road from the east to the north of the city. 15,000 homes are planned to be built, along with schools, shops, clinics and offices over the course of twenty years. Now this is grand for Manchester, 25,000 homes are needed according to Susanne Richards. A fifth of these homes being affordable housing is also a plus to people getting onto the property ladder, it also offers businesses a chance to set up shop in a new local area with a new customer base.
Why does this matter?
However, this isn’t all the expansion helps, people getting new places to be means more places for their stuff to be. Transport companies could expect a boost in business in the Manchester area as people move in for several years. Even after this those new businesses will need products and other essentials shipped around. Plus the area is expected to have road resurfacing jobs as well as new connecting roads that’ll make driving around that area much easier.
When it comes to living in Manchester, affordable living is difficult to come by. Especially those wanting to buy their property it’s doubly hard. In an article by the BBC they showed that the number of home owners in Greater Manchester fell from 72% of homes being owned in 2003 to 58% in 2016. The Northern gateway gives buyers of all price ranges more options.
The plans also include park space for families, and an unbroken path along the River Irk. This would reclaim it from the dense jungle of overgrowth and burnt out cars it finds itself in.
Any Issues with the Northern Gateway?
The plan of course has question marks however, namely its time scale and disruption caused by the construction. The budget is also large, a 1 billion pound investment, with 50 million hopefully coming from the government. Manchester has had issues with construction before, it is much more difficult to drive through then it was due to traffic laws and the trams.
However if and when this gets built it will offer drivers and transporters an entirely new way into the city. This opens the city up to more and more new things.