Oldham to decide on huge plan to transform town centre with 2,000 new homes

Council bosses are due to sign off a masterplan to ‘transform’ Oldham town centre at a cabinet meeting next week.

The meeting on Monday, November 18, will greenlight a 15-year partnership with developers Muse to bring 2,000 new homes, offices and businesses to Oldham. 

The plans, drawn up to address the borough’s housing crisis and low  footfall for local businesses, involve developing council-owned land in key areas across the town centre.  These include Mumps, the Civic Centre and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the old leisure centre,  and the demolished Magistrates Court.

All of the sites are ‘brownfield’ – meaning they have been built on before, unlike greenfield land. Most of the areas will become home to L-shaped residential blocks built around communal parks, and nearby commercial space for amenities such as gyms, nurseries and cafes. 

The sites are grouped into different ‘character areas’, according to their uses. These are: Civic and Residential quarter; theRetail Core; Cultural and Creative quarter; Eastern Edge and Mumps and the Western Edge and Educational Quarter. 

The cabinet will also seek to rubber stamp a development at Prince’s Gate in Mumps as part of the masterplans. Currently an underused car park. The land was previously earmarked for a project with M&S and then Lidl, but both supermarkets pulled out before the construction could begin. 

Now it could finally find a new lease of life as 295 new homes. The three blocks will include a mix of private, affordable and social rent. 

Once confirmed at cabinet, the council-Muse partnership will aim to submit a planning application in early 2025, according to an officer report.