Manchester’s Craig and Heron on affordability, public realm strategy

Council leader Bev Craig and strategic director of growth Becca Heron discussed active travel networks, work/life balance and more at the Women in Property’s International Women’s Day event on Tuesday.

More than 150 property professionals attended the event at the University of Manchester Engineering Campus. Glenbrook residential director Shannon Conway was the emcee for the morning, quizzing Heron and Craig on a range of topics from the £135m Galleries revamp in Wigan (a project Heron was heavily involved in during her past role as director of economy and skills for that council) to gentrification.

Here’s a selection of topics from the discussion.

Affordable housing

Heron: “It is quite challenging to deliver [affordable housing in] the city centre, but that is also partly because there isn’t actually enough supply of housing overall. I think you’ve got to plan places as holistically as you can with the resources that you’ve got – and some of the constraints are about funding regimes as well. So as local government that is always difficult…

“Victoria North is a good example. We’re investing in public space and public housing, the tram stop and a school. In an ideal world as a council, we would have funding for over 15 years and we would combine those resources and deliver them in an integrated way. It doesn’t work like that.”

Craig: “The ability in Manchester to be able to plan 10, 15, 20 years in the future is something that’s very powerful. When I speak to some of my colleagues in other cities in the UK, their local electoral cycles means that they have to think in two-, three-, four-year cycles, rather than what’s best for them 10 years or so down the line…

“On the surface of it, if we’re going off social media, then it’s a politically populist thing for me to say: ‘Down with the towers, we’re only going to build affordable housing.’ But you don’t grow and build a city like that. You don’t attract DCMS, you don’t become the third coolest city in the world to live in, you don’t become the fastest growing digital tech hub in Europe – you don’t see all of these things unless you take a balanced approach.

“My role as a politician will never be to go out to Manchester people and simply defend developers. What my role is it defend a plan and a vision of the kind of Manchester we want to see…

“I think there was a lot of media around Renaker’s development – £500m invested into Manchester. But they’re also building a school. They’re investing £10m into public realm. And we’ve introduced clawback mechanisms if their growth and their profit outstrips what they projected. There’s an opportunity for Manchester to benefit from that.

“I think it’s about doing all these things in the round. At the same time, challenging ourselves to go faster on our affordable housing strategy. We’re upping our numbers. We’re going to commit to 10,000 new affordable and social homes in the next 10 years. That’s ambitious.”

Safety and public realm

Craig: “I think it’s fair to say that for much of our design – and I think this has started to change with new developments – but for much of our design, perhaps [safety] priorities haven’t always been there. So, for example, we taken decisions around lighting that are based on environmental concerns. But we never contemplate on what implications does dimly lit areas have for how people feel…

“What I’m not trying to do is say Manchester is an unsafe place, because we’re disproportionately not any more or less safe than the rest of the UK. But there is a cultural thing. And I think it begins with young girls and the expectations in society then puts upon them and their own personal safety. And I think it’s just it’s challenging. It’s saying that it’s not in the sphere of just the police. But it’s in the sphere of how we design spaces through to parks.”

Heron: “When we look at the development of a master plan, or a public realm strategy, the focus very much is on access, clear sightlines, active frontage, lighting… I’ve noticed a real emphasis in Manchester about the quality of public spaces… We’re investing quite heavily in that. And I think that we are very much looking at security by design, safety by design. You can always do more on that. Whether it needs to be in policy, I’m not sure.”

• Read more: Place North West’s interview with Craig when she was first named leader

Active travel networks

Heron: “I’ll just be really frank. I don’t think we have got a coherent plan for our active travel network – or certainly not one that is current. We need to refresh that and we are doing that.

“One of the other constraints is the availability of funding, because a lot of funding sources available to us have a very specific criteria that are about active travel on the existing highway network. That is a challenge for us… If the funding isn’t available for off-road [cycle paths], we have to find other sources.”

Craig: “We’ve got ourselves stuck in a view of cycling as commuter cycling and very little beyond commuter cycling. I think what the pandemic shows is that people, when they’ve got time, like to be on bikes. There’s interest there. I’m one of those people that have two bikes – I have my road bike and my mountain bike. I think the recreation side of things is just as important as a commuter. I think in the plan, we’ll be able to blend both those together… it’s finding the money to do that and one of our internal conversations around Greater Manchester funding is to shift some of that away from or in addition to the roads. It’s certainly on our radar.”

Retaining community identity in the midst of development

Heron: “I think the city’s got quite a variation within its neighbourhoods. It’s about the right offer in the right places… It is really important that we bring communities with us, that they are given the right to have a new home in those neighbourhoods, that they understand the process, that they’re informed throughout that process and feel a part of it. That’s the only way to do it.”

Craig: “From my perspective, if we were simply just to replicate across the city, then we would be doing exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve.

“When you look at London, it’s the same group of population spreading out because there is a limited supply [of housing]. That’s the other side of making sure developments are still coming on stream in the city centre because there is a demand in the city centre and if we don’t fulfil that demand there, then actually it’s our communities in Ardwick, Hulme, and Moss Side [that need to fill it]. That’s not to say that’s not already happening. But those are the areas with the most vibrant communities, with the strongest social connections of people that look out for each other…

“We’re not replicating. The solution for helping investment in Cheetham Hill or Wythenshawe town centre isn’t just about getting another Aldi in, another Starbucks. Because that’s not what the community wants. It needs to be something that blends.”

Heron on Wigan Galleries support

Heron: “There weren’t many naysayers. There were people that really wanted to see positive change in that town, but they weren’t quite sure how to do it…  I brought in experts to help develop the strategic regeneration framework for Wigan Town Centre – planning and architects to really look at how that place functioned, what the opportunities were, what the weaknesses were, and then the range of options available to us…

“All credit to Wigan Council, because they acquired a 3.2-hectare shopping centre right in the heart of the town. That is an unrivalled opportunity to fundamentally change the nature of the town.

“Doing nothing is not an option – that was sort of my strapline in Wigan. If we don’t invest in this [town centre], the private sector won’t invest in it. If we do nothing, it’s just going to dwindle.”

Craig on being the first openly gay leader in Manchester

Craig: “It’s really interesting because I didn’t think I prepared myself for the amount of questions that, particularly from the media, I would get on the basis of my identity. But that’s not to say that it isn’t important to me and that it isn’t an important part of me.

“But I was finding myself seemingly being invited, even within my own party, to go to talk at events about equality when people from nearby authorities, mostly straight white men in their 60s, were being invited to talk about the economy, or infrastructure, or transport or the environment…

“There’s also a challenge there that just because I’ve got a set of life experiences, doesn’t mean that I don’t have ideas on how to redefine the economy, what we do around race and develop and how we tackle climate change. My role as leader of cities to talk about all those issues.”

Maintaining a healthy work/life balance

Craig: “Having a group of normal people that you really like that you can retreat to, prioritise and spend time with is probably the key thing for me. I can spend my life going from event to event, so I always try to prioritise a bit of time – at least in the evenings of the weekends.”

Heron: “It does take discipline. There is so much stuff crossing my desk that I can work 18 hours a day. I can also be at any number of evening events as well. So you’ve got to fiercely defend your time. So I try to keep at least two evenings a week to do jujitsu, which is something that I love. You’ve got to find the time and protect what’s important to you. Otherwise [work] will just become all-consuming.”

Advice for the younger generation

Heron: “Doing something that you love is really important because you will naturally be more authentic if you’re enthusiastic and passionate about what you do. A lesson I learned in Manchester was that it’s okay just to listen as well. I remember feeling under pressure sometimes to express a view or make my mark – but actually, it’s okay to just make sure you know what you’re talking about first. We’re all allowed to learn and develop our understanding.”

Craig: “For many of us, our goals are short term. That’s okay. There doesn’t have to be a masterplan that you’ll be a CEO by the time you’re 50. Recognize and accept that.

“Ambition is okay too. I think sometimes how women are perceived to be ambitious is often very different to your traditional view of a successful man. I’ll be really honest, I wanted to be leader of the council. I was elected in 2011 and I made tactical decisions to go for jobs that well placed me for when I thought the guy would retire.” Craig laughed.