Site updated 06-05-06

Regional Planning Priorities Relevant to INTERREG IIIB: North West

The overriding aim of regional strategies in the North West is to promote sustainable patterns of development and physical change. The Region’s economic, social and environmental interests must be advanced together and support each other.

Economically, following the decline of many traditional manufacturing and related industries, the emphasis is on making the Region more competitive and encouraging the sectors with most potential for growth. If it is to be sustainable, future economic growth must for the most part be harnessed to support urban renaissance and greater levels of social inclusion. The rural economy, though, also needs reviving. Crucially, the Region’s industries need to be able to compete with those in other parts of the world. To assist this the Region requires first class infrastructure, a highly skilled and adaptable workforce, and the best possible links to other parts of the UK, Europe and the world.

Socially, the areas containing the greatest concentrations of multiple-deprivation are the core areas of the Greater Manchester and Merseyside conurbations as well as the inner parts of the region’s other older industrial towns. These areas, though, also contain most of the Region’s disused land and buildings. The positive management and re-use of this huge resource offers considerable scope for the restructuring of land uses in a holistic way to achieve more sustainable patterns of development, higher levels of economic activity, and better quality housing, environment and local facilities.

Environmentally, the highly urbanised nature of large areas of the North West gives rise to an ‘ecological footprint’ that is of worldwide significance. There is, therefore, a need to move towards a more sustainable future to contribute both to global and national environmental targets and initiatives as well as to make the region a better place to live. There is a need, in particular, to deal with dereliction; improve air and water quality; manage fabric of the urban estate and sensitive rural landscapes; protect wildlife; increase tree cover; and find more sustainable ways of dealing with waste. Further research is needed on the implications of climate change for the North West.

Key Planning Issues

The above priorities give rise to the following key planning issues in the North West:
  1. Ensuring that economic development supports urban renaissance and social inclusion in accordance with the RPG Spatial Development Framework, focussing especially on the inner areas of Liverpool and Manchester/Salford and other areas where there are concentrations of social and economic deprivation.
  2. Creating high quality, sustainable, urban neighbourhoods. This will involve reshaping and restructuring land uses to the extent necessary to establish well designed and compact, mixed use and mixed tenure neighbourhoods with good facilities and linkages.
  3. Reducing the need to travel by focussing major generators of travel demand in city, town and district centres and near to major public transport interchanges, and by locating day to day facilities in local centres so that they are accessible by walking and cycling.
  4. Developing and diversifying the economy of rural parts of the Region, especially in market towns.
  5. Ensuring an integrated and sensitive approach to the development of the coast.
  6. Promoting economy in the use of land and adopting a sequential approach to meeting development needs so that priority is given to re-using existing buildings worthy of retention and previously developed land.
  7. Ensuring that development is of the highest design quality and that it enhances the environment.
  8. Restoring derelict and neglected land and buildings and dealing with contaminated land across the Region.
  9. Securing better air and water quality.
  10. Minimising and dealing more effectively with the Region’s waste.