Report of the Chief Executive attached

The Executive considered a report of the Chief Executive which provided an update on key areas of progress against the Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 which reset Manchester’s priorities for the next five years to ensure the Council could still achieve the city’s ambition set out in the Our Manchester Strategy 2016 – 2025.

The Leader reported on the recent announcement by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for the creation of a new hub on Marble Street, Manchester.  Manchester was also already home to a number of national sports governing bodies and DCMS’ new Manchester presence would further cement the city’s role as a sporting capital.

On behalf of the Executive Member for Environment, the Leader also reported that the Council’s climate change plan had been rated one of the strongest of any local authority by campaigning organisation Climate Emergency UK.  Their analysis put the Council’s Climate Change Action Plan third best out of 409 UK local authorities – the highest placed metropolitan council – with a score of 87% against an average score across all local authorities was 46%.  This reflected the scale and ambition that Manchester had in leading the way in taking action to address climate change within the city.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services reported that the Council had been accepted onto UNICEF’s Child Friendly Cities and Communities programme.  This was the first step on a journey which was set to culminate in two or three years time with the official award of Child Friendly status.

The goal was that Child Friendly status would  reflect the permanent legacy of the Council’s Our Year campaign which aimed to create an array of activities, opportunities and experiences for the city’s children and young people and help make Manchester one of the best places for young people to grow up in.

The Executive Member for Housing and Employment reported on the official launch of This City, a wholly Council-owned housing development company crated to accelerate the number of new homes available to Manchester people.  Schemes developed by This City would focus on high quality, low carbon homes and deliver a mix of accessible rent and market properties.  The first development site had been unveiled as Rodney Street in Ancoats. It would consist of 128 apartments and town houses – 30% of which would be for accessible rent. Wates Construction had been appointed as lead contractor.  It was also reported that all future This City developments would include a minimum of 20% of homes available at an accessible rent. 

He also reported that Dahlia House, a new ‘with care’ social housing development for older people had been completed in Burnage and was preparing to accept new tenants.  The £8m development, which had transformed a brownfield former industrial laundry site into 56 age-friendly apartments for social rent for people over 55, had been delivered as part of Southway Housing Trust’s partnership with the Council to provide much-needed social housing ‘with care’ in the city.

Decision

The Executive note the update.