Overlooked estate in shadow of Man City's Etihad Stadium finally gets masterplan including 1,000 new homes

The Grey Mare Lane estate was built in 1967 and sits next to Manchester City’s Etihad Campus. It has been subject to numerous attempts to revitalise its fortunes.

However, not all of them have been successful — with the most recent project going back to the drawing board after housing association One Manchester was deemed ‘not up to the task’ of delivering the original scheme in full.

The retrofit programme left the community divided, as only social renters received upgrades — despite the government promising funding for all homes, including right-to-buy owners. Now, a new blueprint for the area is set to be approved by city leaders next week. The masterplan aims to build 1,000 new homes in the area, council documents show.

“[There will be] upgrades to existing streets and introduction of new cycle lanes, pedestrian walking routes, sustainable drainage systems, and street greening on Grey Mare Lane,” it went on. “[We will] create new access routes onto Grey Mare Lane from Newcombe Close and Raglan Close, introduce a school street or play street between the East Manchester Academy and St Brigid’s School to promote safe streets for children… improve green space with provision of play equipment for children of all ages, reduce the number of lanes at the junction between Bell Crescent and Alan Turing Way, [and] create a true heart and focal point in the estate with an improved retail, community and health offer.”

Gavin White, Manchester’s executive councillor for housing, told Place North West the area ‘needs investment’. He explained: “Fifty years after the estate was first built by the council, this neighbourhood needs investment that will keep it in step with the wider area. And we know residents have been waiting patiently for the plans to come forward.”

The move comes as the Great Places Housing Group announced separate plans to build 69 flats — all available for social rent — on the now-demolished Manchester Bar pub.