The Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Democrat Group on Oldham Council, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE. has roundly condemned the Conservative Government for unilaterally withdrawing a £68 million housing fund promised to Greater Manchester that would have mostly been used to make brownfield sites suitable for housing redevelopment.

The Outline Housing Package, agreed in 2017 between the Government and the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester, included £50m to help remediate brownfield land.

Councillor Sykes added: “Greater Manchester was the location of the first industrial revolution.  Oldham Borough was at the heart of the cotton industry.  Consequently, many of our brownfield sites suffer from significant contamination, which is the result of previous industrial use as cotton mills; chemical and coal gas plants; coal mines; and dye works.  It has been estimated that remediation costs on average at least £250,000 per acre and redevelopment is often unaffordable without this subsidy.”

Councillor Sykes said: “Put more bluntly this is effectively the Conservatives forcing local authorities to build on our precious green belt and this illustrates their complete hypocrisy when their own supposed policy is to encourage Councils to ‘maximise the contribution’ of brownfield sites in meeting housing need.  Locally Liberal Democrats remain opposed to whole sale green belt development and we always will be.”

Note:The reference to ‘maximising the contribution’ of brownfield sites comes from the Conservative Government’s own White Paper ‘Fixing our Broken Housing Market’.