New portfolios announced for GMCA Leaders

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has announced two new portfolios roles for the city-region leaders that make up the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).

GMCA is made up of the ten Greater Manchester councils and the Mayor and Deputy Mayors of Greater Manchester. Each council is represented by its elected leader. The Mayor assigns portfolios to each council representative which they lead on for the whole of Greater Manchester.

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, and will lead on the city-region’s ambitions to deliver 75,000 new homes in the current parliament. Deputy Mayor Dennett will also lead a new cross-sector Housing First Unit for Greater Manchester, a pioneering initiative to end the housing crisis here by 2038 with aims around homebuilding, protection for renters and homelessness support.

Tameside Council leader, Cllr Gerald Cooney, will also take on a new role as Portfolio Lead for Greater Manchester Pension Fund Investments and the Bee Network Pension Scheme. This new role will focus on unlocking the full potential of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) as a driver for economic growth. Cllr Cooney’s new role will also see the creation of a new pension scheme open to staff from any Bee Network operator to make working on the network a more attractive career choice.

Stockport Council Leader, Cllr Mark Hunter, will retain his role as Portfolio Lead for Children and Young People.

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.”