£2.8m plan to transform Rochdale and Oldham

A £2.8million eight-year blueprint for the future of Rochdale and Oldham Boroughs  tackles challenges and grabs opportunities, according to the think tank behind it.

Focussing on jobs, homes and communities, it describes the current position as fragile and sets out a programme for transformation.

It predicts the borough of Rochdale - now the second most deprived borough in Greater Manchester - will be thriving by 2020.

Currently having one of the highest levels of unemployment in the region, the prediction is it will become a “great place to live” and play a “new and dynamic role” in the region.

And it says Rochdalians will earn more, have quality local facilities, and an “excellent” quality of life, in both urban and rural areas.

Produced by the Oldham and Rochdale Economic and Skills Alliance, and supported by Partners in Action, the document investigates how the two boroughs can play their part in an emerging strategy for the Manchester City region.

It predicts an extra 16,000 new jobs for the region with more than 500,000 square metres of new office, manufacturing and retail space, 10,000 new homes, 2,800 of which it describes as “affordable,” and opportunities for £1.5 billion of private investment.

It does, however, warn the process will not be easy, with the recession hitting jobs hard, placing undoubted strain on the community cohesion which many bodies have worked hard to foster.

The move is part of a vision which makes Rochdale and Oldham Boroughs places were people want to live and work.

The document sets out a programme of investment from both the public and private sector.

Rochdale Borough Council leader, Councillor Irene Davidson, and her counterpart in Oldham, Councillor Howard Sykes, believe the two boroughs can contribute to growth in the city region and also benefit from it, and they say the two areas already have a history of successful partnership working.