The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has announced two new portfolio roles for Greater Manchester Combined Authority to help ensure the city region is best placed to solve the housing crisis and deliver economic growth.
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 our 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). 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 housing crisis here 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.
Councillor Gerald 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 fund is not a function of the Mayor or the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as it is a statutory committee of Tameside Council, of which Councillor Cooney is the Chair. However, it has a long history of collaborating with the 10 Greater Manchester Councils, supporting them to invest in their areas for over 30 years.
The GMPF has led the way in local government pension funds by showing how money invested by workers in their pensions can be used to drive forward local regeneration and development projects at pace and scale, while delivering good investment returns for pension fund members.
Most recently, the Good Economy has reported that GMPF’s Local Investment portfolio has provided capital to 162 businesses – which has helped to support over 16,000 jobs and create 2,700 new jobs. Additionally, the portfolio has invested £173 million into nine funds that have collectively provided over 3,500 homes, of which two thirds are in the North-West. Thanks to our Trailblazer devolution deal, we’re able to expand and accelerate this work.
Councillor Cooney will also use his expertise to develop proposals to create a new pension scheme open to staff from any Bee Network operator. The recruitment of bus drivers is a challenge across the UK. Being able to offer a single defined benefits pension scheme will help tackle driver shortages by making working on the Bee Network an even more attractive career choice.
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. Councillor Cooney will also contribute to the Treasury Review into Local Government Pension Schemes.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said: “I would like to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication of Councillor 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 Councillor 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.
“He will lead the work to develop proposals for a Bee Network Pension Scheme which will be a gamechanger for the bus companies in the Bee Network, giving them the ability to attract and retain staff by offering them better pension benefits than they can now. This will strengthen our public transport network even more – it’s a win-win for both staff and passengers.
“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.”
