Oldham and Rochdale share £40 million boost

Oldham Council, with Rochdale Council, will each be given £20m for various local projects, benefitting sport, culture, education, businesses, and housing provision across the two Greater Manchester boroughs.

Funding has come from the government’s community regeneration fund and is the result of the council’s successful investment case to the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

The cash allocated to Oldham will be split across seven schemes including £2.5m for a cultural quarter at Oldham Coliseum, £2m for market traders to facilitate their move to vacant units in Spindles, and £5m for the town centre housing delivery partnership.

Arooj Shah, leader of Oldham Council, called the £20m investment a “gamechanger” and said the cash would “help restore pride and hope to [the] borough”.

The largest chunk of Oldham’s £20m investment, a £5m package, will be spent supporting the development of a planning strategy, and the associated pre-development costs of four key town centre housing sites, including the Civic Centre, Magistrates Court, Leisure Centre, and Princes Gate schemes.

The Civic Centre is set to deliver up to 838 homes and the Magistrates Court could deliver up to 219 homes. Oldham has appointed Muse as its development partner for the projects.

Princes Gate, a 331-home scheme at what will be a key gateway, and the town’s former leisure centre’s redevelopment into 240 proposed properties will also get financial backing.

It is hoped that the £5m investment will accelerate planning and speed up the borough’s housing delivery.