New GMCA portfolios unveiled, with focus on boosting housing provision

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has unveiled two new combined authority portfolio roles, including a key appointment to boost homebuilding across the region.

GMCA is made up of the 10 Greater Manchester councils and the Mayor of Greater Manchester. Each council is represented by its elected leader. The Mayor assigns a policy area to each council representative which they lead on for the whole of Greater Manchester.

Paul Dennett, Deputy Mayor for Greater Manchester, will take on the new role of Portfolio Lead for Housing First, which covers both homelessness and housing. He will lead the mission to deliver 75,000 new homes in the current parliament.

Previously Portfolio Lead for Housing and Homelessness for five years, between 2017 and 2022, the GMCA says Deputy Mayor Dennett brings specialist knowledge of the housing sector, a strong track record in delivering high quality and affordable housing and lived experience of the challenges facing renters in the city region.

Deputy Mayor Dennett will lead a new cross-sector Housing First Unit for Greater Manchester, a pioneering initiative to end the region’s housing crisis by 2038. Building on the success of the Housing First Pilot, it is based on the philosophy that good health, good education, and good jobs cannot come without a good, permanent home. It will work to:

• Ensure that Greater Manchester builds the new homes that the city region needs, including affordable homes and single-occupancy accommodation.
• Protect renters with the UK’s first Good Landlord Charter and tackle rogue landlords by empowering residents to request a Property Check followed up by enforcement action where necessary.
• Provide tailored support to homeless people with complex needs, including health and wellbeing services.

Housing First is part of the GMCA’s pioneering approach to delivering public services and tackling the problems that are hampering wellbeing and economic growth. The GMCA uses devolved powers, funding and partnership working to pull together public services across the city region to improve the lives of residents and help more people to get into work.

Cllr Ged Cooney is also taking on a new role, as Portfolio Lead for Greater Manchester Pension Fund Investments and the Bee Network Pension Scheme.

This new portfolio will focus on unlocking the full potential of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) as a driver for economic growth. He will also develop a proposal for a Bee Network pension scheme.

The new pensions portfolio will aim to increase the profile of GMPF’s innovative work nationally, showing how public sector pension funds can be used to benefit local communities, kickstarting regeneration and funding housing development schemes.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of Cllr Gerald Cooney and Deputy Mayor Paul Dennett, who have driven the trailblazing partnership work that has seen Greater Manchester lead the way in both housing and healthcare policy. 

“Following the successful adoption of our Places for Everyone plan across nine of our boroughs earlier this year, Deputy Mayor Dennett will now return to the housing portfolio to drive forward our ambitious plan to deliver 75,000 new homes in the city region over the next five years and lead on our new Housing First unit, with a clear goal of providing a healthy home for everyone in Greater Manchester.

“The first step to a good life has to be a good home – our Housing First pilot helped hundreds of people find good, safe homes and get the support they needed to stay there. We’ve called on the Government to embed our lessons into a new national approach to tackling the housing crisis to support their pledge to deliver 1.5 million high quality new homes in the next five years.

“This will free up Cllr Cooney to take on the new portfolio managing the Greater Manchester Pensions Fund, which will be essential in enabling us to boost economic growth and investment across the region, supporting the Government in their mission to secure productivity growth in every part of the country so everyone, not just a few, are better off.

“I look forward to working together with all our leaders to make a positive difference to the lives of people who live, work and visit our city region.”

Paul Dennett, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester said: “Here in Salford, we’ve worked innovatively to tackle the housing crisis, building hundreds of high quality, affordable, sustainable homes through our council-owned development company Dérive, and I am very much looking forward to putting this experience to good use for the benefit of the whole of Greater Manchester.”

Cllr Cooney said: “Greater Manchester’s economy is already growing faster than the UK as a whole, and I look forward to bringing our years of experience and expertise in managing the fund to bear, to deliver on our economic ambitions and showcase the fund nationally as a driver for UK economic growth.”