What a Stockport cotton mill tells us about Burnham’s plans for the UK

Within half an hour of arriving in Stockport, someone sporting a totebag which reads “Stockport isn’t shit” walks past. Shortly after that, a T-shirt branding the town as “the new Berlin” appears. In economic terms, Stockport is certainly a success story. Fifteen years ago, it was named as the town with the most empty shops in Britain, but things are very different today. Its economy boomed by 24 per cent in the decade to 2018, and since then a £2bn regeneration project – one of the largest in the UK – has also attracted an additional £600m in private investment. And now, this former industrial heartland is considered by Andy Burnham as the blueprint for his plans to rejuvenate towns across Britain. An example of this in action is Stockport’s Weir Mill. The former 18th century cotton mill overlooking the River Mersey has been transformed into 253 new homes, an outdoor communal courtyard for gigs and events and what is believed to be the country’s first sports bar focused on women’s sports. The £60m project, led by developer Capital and Centric but funded through a mix of private investment and public sector grants and loans, is part of the wider regeneration of Stockport town centre which Burnham has hailed as a “blueprint for towns across the UK”. ‘The new Berlin’ The comparison of Stockport to Germany’s countercultural capital was popularised by Manchester DJ Luke Unabomber, but it has become something of a legend for Stockport’s regeneration – whether that’s in Market Place or the Underbank where bars, record shops and cafes are full and thriving. Stockport is undergoing a £2bn transformation – one of the largest in the UK (Photo: Getty) Central to the changes here is the fact that a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) led the project. That is true not just in the eyes of Labour politicians who favour development corporations but also former Tory housing minister Baron Barwell, who is now chair of Stockport’s MDC, and the new Lib Dem leader of Stockport’s council, Mark Roberts. Development corporations were crucial to the building of new towns after the Second World War. More recently, one was set up to deliver regeneration and infrastructure in east London’s Stratford ahead of the 2012 Olympics. These bodies are supposed to operate apolitically as specialised public bodies established by the government to drive large-scale regeneration or development from scratch. They are known as “master planners” because they can grant planning permission directly and compulsorily purchase land to clear the way for major infrastructure. There is much talk of whether “Burnhamism” is now the unifying governing theory for Britain, but, speaking to The i Paper during a tour of the town centre, Roberts said he thinks it is rather the case that “Stockport showed Burnham how things can be done differently”. Roberts then points out that the council here was not controlled by one party for years, meaning that there had to be a coalition. “We have had to work in a different way,” he emphasises. Good growth? It was Burnham who signed off on establishing an MDC in Stockport in 2019. Since then, Stockport’s MDC has built 1,200 new homes with another 1,500 on the way, as well as the creation of a new public transport hub, Stockport Interchange. Paul Richards, deputy chief executive at Stockport council, adds: “Andy used to joke that if it all went wrong [here] it would all be his fault but, if it didn’t, everybody else would be all over it.” Stockport Interchange, a new transport hub, has been created as part of the regeneration project (Photo: Vicky Spratt/The i Paper) Richards and Roberts say the plan is to deliver 8,000 new town centre homes planned by 2040 and 1 million sq ft of employment space planned by 2040 across the town centre. The reflected glory of Stockport’s MDC seems to have taken hold. Burnham’s successor as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, is now establishing an MDC for nearby Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner’s constituency). Development corporations are central to the Government’s plan to deliver new towns across England, and housing minister Matthew Pennycook has established a development corporation for the building out of Cambridge as part of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. The tension between homes for private and social rent There has been some criticism of Stockport’s build-to-rent developments, because they are often expensive – a two-bedroom flat at Weir Mill will set you back £1,600 a month. However, homes for social rent as well as “rent to buy” schemes at Hatters Yard are also currently being built in the town centre. There are currently 9,800 people on Stockport’s social housing waiting list. Across the country, the number of people in need of social housing has risen in recent years as private rents have gone up, often above inflation. This conflict represents a major tension for Burnham’s Government, which has just announced the £10bn in the first phase of its national £39bn funding programme for affordable housing for social rent. In an exclusive interview with The i Paper about the announcement, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the Government had “tilted” towards getting councils building homes for social rent again and that she hoped state capital investment could boost Britain’s stalled and ailing housebuilding market. This, again, echoes the Stockport strategy. But, if there were a cautionary message, it must be how long it has taken to get Stockport to this point: over a decade. Infrastructure first Roberts and Richards both believe that installing such major infrastructure in a considered way – enhancing as opposed to obliterating views of heritage assets – has also been key to Stockport’s success. However, it hasn’t all been pro-development plain sailing. In 2020, Stockport council voted to withdraw from the region-wide housing strategy—initially the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and later renamed Places for Everyone— to protect local green belt land from development. In 2025, Pennycook’s Planning and Infrastructure Act removed this veto power from single authorities, giving development corporations authority to overrule councils. Since becoming Prime Minister, Burnham has gone further and given regional mayors the power to overrule councils if they plan to reject new housing and infrastructure, too. Burnham certainly did not create Stockport. Nor did he kick-start the town’s renaissance. But seeing what is possible in Stockport, it’s clear that it has shaped the Prime Minister’s vision for national growth fuelled by regional devolution.