Cash from Burnham’s flagship fund goes to ‘who shouts loudest’
Andy Burnham promises to kickstart Britain’s flagging economy with ‘good growth in every postcode’.
But the prime minister-in-waiting’s record as Greater Manchester Mayor has been criticised for skewing spending towards the shiny skyscrapers that dominate its centre instead of the area’s ‘forgotten’ suburbs.
The Mail on Sunday has analysed £1billion of funding recently allocated by his flagship Greater Manchester Good Growth Fund – the blueprint to drive investment, build houses and create jobs that he plans to roll out across the UK.
It is funded by the taxpayer-owned National Wealth Fund, the £35billion Greater Manchester Pension Fund and £150million of borrowing from future business rates revenues.
Our findings show Manchester gets the lion’s share of cash – £260million towards housing, business and transport, mostly around the city centre. The only deprived area to gain is Wythenshawe, to the south of the city. It received £26million towards housing.
Politics: Andy Burnham promises to kickstart Britain’s flagging economy with ‘good growth in every postcode’
Tameside – population 240,000 – has £25million to revamp Ashton-under-Lyne town centre and for ‘enabling works’ at a new private housing estate.
But wealthier Trafford, with a near-identical population size, has received £139million towards housing and a new road.
The findings have fuelled concerns the money has gone to areas whose leaders ‘shout the loudest’.
Ex-local Tory MP Lord Barry of Altrincham said Burnham’s mayoralty focused on ‘development in Manchester city centre’ while scant investment ‘reached the outer boroughs’.
Gerald Cooney, ex-Labour leader of Tameside Council, said investment dictated by London ‘doesn’t work, hasn’t worked’. Yet while Greater Manchester’s economy grew at twice the UK rate, outlying areas ‘don’t feel the benefit’.
Money goes to ‘who shouts the loudest’ while poorer boroughs ‘have got very little’, he added.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has faced scrutiny over £615million of taxpayer loans to Renaker – the developer behind many of the city’s residential skyscrapers – funded separately.
Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley, north Manchester, said money must be spent ‘where it’s most effective’, adding: ‘There’s a balance between need and getting bang for your buck’.
He is uneasy about public money supporting the ‘headline-grabbing’ redevelopment next to Manchester United’s football ground – which he fears ‘hasn’t received a thorough assessment’.
Burnham’s plan to devolve more spending is backed by former Bank of England economist Andy Haldane, who called it an ‘important underpinning of economic and democratic renewal’. Ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening, a Tory, said Burnham ‘may have a far better sense of how to deliver’ on levelling up than Boris Johnson.
The GMCA said its Good Growth Fund would ‘unlock’ brownfield sites, creating social housing.
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