{"id":765847,"date":"2026-02-15T09:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/765847\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:42:21","slug":"the-430m-project-for-greater-manchesters-best-kept-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/765847\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u00a3430m project for ‘Greater Manchester\u2019s best kept secret\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around \u00a3430m has already been spent on Oldham – and that’s just the beginning. But who will foot the bill?<\/p>\n

06:34, 15 Feb 2026Updated 06:34, 15 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

In ten years time, Oldham could be completely unrecognizable.<\/p>\n

A dizzying number of regeneration projects are taking shape across the town centre: 2,000 new homes; a new market; a new secondary school backed by elite college Eton; the creation of the SportsTown, a \u00a370m multi-sports, health, and education facility; an urban farm; and a huge new green space running through the middle of the town centre.<\/p>\n

Buildings that have been hallmarks of Oldham<\/a>\u2019s skyline, like the Queen Elizabeth Hall, are tipped for demolition. Others have already vanished forever – from Oldham\u2019s Grand Theatre, rumoured to have once hosted The Beatles, to the Snipe Inn pub on Henshaw Street.<\/p>\n

Click here to prioritise Manchester news in Google from the MEN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Around \u00a3430m has already been spent on kickstarting the town\u2019s transformation from ugly duckling to Greater Manchester\u2019s swan in the north-east.<\/p>\n

\u201cOldham was a place that always felt like it was on its knees,\u201d townhall boss Arooj Shah said. \u201cWe always looked at someone else to help us. Even within Greater Manchester it felt like we were the poorer relative. But things have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Coun<\/p>\n

Coun Shah addressing the North West Place event at the townhall.(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

The leader of Oldham Council addressed the comment to a room full of business people earlier this week at the renovated Old Library – now the new town hall. Most of them were potential developers or building contractors, organisations the council is hoping to court into partnerships to deliver some of the huge schemes.<\/p>\n

Because while the town hall boss has publicly assured people that not even defeats at the next local election could derail her ambitious plans for the town<\/a> – someone needs to foot the bill, and carry out the works.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere in the room was one of excited curiosity. But beyond the townhall walls, people are more sceptical that all these schemes will come to fruition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been undelivered promises,\u201d said Shelley Kipling, Odham\u2019s CEO, told the LDRS candidly. \u201cWe\u2019ve delivered bits of projects but not the longer term vision. Previously, I don\u2019t think we were ready [to deliver a longer-term plan] yet. There had to be visible signs of progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shelley<\/p>\n

Shelley Kipling, Odham\u2019s CEO(Image: Oldham Council)<\/p>\n

In the past, several promised regeneration projects have faltered. The most-cited example is Prince\u2019s Gate at Oldham Mumps, which was abandoned not once, but twice, after first M&S and then Lidl backed away from signed deals.<\/p>\n

Now the \u2018underused car park\u2019 is being developed into housing as part of a partnership with urban developer Muse, thanks to a \u00a331.5m kickstarter investment by Andy Burnham<\/a>\u2019s Good Growth fund.<\/p>\n

Kipling said: \u201cTowns like Oldham, you\u2019re asking for more when you ask people to come and invest here over an easier town. That\u2019s why us investing our money, the GMCA\u2019s money, and leveraging those partnerships with government to get that public sector money. We\u2019re at that point where we can demonstrate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things are starting to shift. Several big projects have been completed in Oldham in recent years: the historic townhall has been turned into a cinema, restaurants, and foodhall; the Spindles shopping centre is now partly council offices; and the old library is the new townhall.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The old library is now the new townhall.(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

While not everyone agrees with the game of Swaperoo at the hert of these projects, it\u2019s apparently starting to reassure big spenders and planners – at least according to townhall bosses.<\/p>\n

“We’re definitely getting a lot more interest,” Coun Shah said. “Our phones are going constantly.”<\/p>\n

And local businesses who\u2019ve been involved in projects are reaping the benefits. Anthony Ashley of civil engineering company Rowan Ashworth said getting involved with some of the council\u2019s schemes has been a gamechanger for the Shaw-based business.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive to six years ago, we were a small company with 10 to 12 people. We\u2019re now 40 employed staff, making a turnover of around seven to \u00a38m a year,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd 80 per cent of our staff are from Oldham. We want that to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other businesses are taking notice too. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham recently visited a brand new warehouse created by Mansell Building Solutions, who have relocated to Oldham\u2019s Broadway business park.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The town centre could change drastically. (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Burnham said he saw moves like this as part of a wider scheme to improve prospects in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s big projects coming to Oldham like SportsTown. Wouldn\u2019t it be great for companies like this to bring their technology into the local community, train up kids from the local area to build the next generation of houses – and hopefully turn this area into a leading region for green construction?\u201d<\/p>\n

So things appear, finally, to be on the up for Greater Manchester\u2019s \u2018poorer relative\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe Oldham is Greater Manchester\u2019s best-kept secret,\u201d Kipling told the room full of industry figures. And added later to the LDRS: \u201cNow we really need to get out there and start sharing this twenty-year vision that we have, and attract the right partners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around \u00a3430m has already been spent on Oldham – and that’s just the beginning. But who will foot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1286,14984,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-765847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-oldham","13":"tag-oldham-council","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116073998914526982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}