The Environment, Climate Change and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet to discuss electric vehicle charging, the active travel strategy, direct emissions, and the draft local plan. The meeting was also scheduled to include discussion of the committee's work programme.

Regulation 18 Consultation on the Draft Local Plan

The committee was scheduled to discuss the draft Local Plan, a document intended to guide land use and physical change in the city. The plan is required to have a vision and framework for future growth and development, and must be realistic based on objective evidence.

The draft plan includes around 80 individual policies, characterised into themes. The plan includes spatial principles and development principles, strategic growth locations, and thematic sections covering housing, economy, zero carbon, environmental matters, transport, design and heritage, development management policies, developer contributions and social value.

The spatial principles policy was scheduled to bring in the key approach contained within Places for Everyone, covering the three strategic areas that cover Manchester: the Core Growth Area, Inner Areas, and Southern Areas. The development principles policy sets the key considerations for all proposals, covering aspects such as high quality design, contributing to net zero carbon development, making a positive contribution to neighbourhoods, ensuring the efficient use of natural resources and reuse of previously developed land, improving access and reducing the need to travel, and seeking to address health inequalities.

The strategic growth locations policies were scheduled to represent the spatial expression of the draft Local Plan where the main areas of growth will be focused. The policies cover key sites and locations such as Manchester City Centre, Victoria North, Holt Town, Sportcity, Central Park, Strangeways, North Manchester General Hospital, Wythenshawe Centre, Medipark and Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester Airport.

The draft Local Plan was scheduled to provide more detail on the key locations for the housing requirement set out in Places for Everyone, which is 3,553 homes per annum, equating to a need to deliver just over 60,000 additional homes over the period 2022 to 2039. Around two thirds of future housing growth will be located in the City Centre, with much of the remaining third being delivered within the Inner Areas part of the city, primarily within the part of Victoria North that sits between the City Centre and Holt Town. Other significant delivery will be in Wythenshawe. Significant housing growth locations including in Newton Heath, Clayton Canalside, Grey Mare Lane, Lower Medlock and Ardwick Green.

The committee was scheduled to comment on the draft Local plan as this relates to the remit of the committee.

Manchester Electric Vehicle Charging Progress

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on progress following the adoption of the Manchester Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Strategy. The strategy defines Manchester City Council's role in delivering EV infrastructure for both the public and residents.

The strategy set out the steps Manchester Council proposed to take to deliver EV charging across the city, including:

• Ensuring all residents without off street parking have access to charging facilities within a 300 metre (~5 minute) walk from their home by 2038
• Planning for the provision of 600 public chargepoints and other charging infrastructure by 2028
• Supporting particular groups of residents where the transition might be more difficult, such as those with accessibility needs, from lower income groups, or residents without off-street parking.
• Working with the Government to reduce the VAT charged for public charging to a comparable level to domestic charging
• Supporting the electrification of taxis, private hire vehicles (PHVs) and car clubs
• Identifying the best utilisation of funding to continue to grow and advance EV charging in Manchester and using appropriate channels to raise awareness of these increasing opportunities.
• Exploring opportunities to use Manchester's own land assets as well as new developments to improve EV charging provision

The report also provided an update on the cable channel pilot scheme, which launched in January 2025. By the end of the application period, 33 cable channels had been successfully installed across 13 wards. The cost of the channel and its installation (£949), along with any costs for remedial pavement work to make the area level is expected to be met by the resident.

As part of the pilot scheme, grant funding was provided to fully fund the installation if the resident met certain criteria, including: blue badge holders, those applying for an EV through a Motability scheme, residents living in properties in Council Tax bands A-C, Manchester registered taxi and private hire drivers, and MCC essential car users up to salary band 8.

The committee was scheduled to comment on and provide feedback on the progress made on city-wide Electric Vehicle Charging, endorse the proposed next steps in relation to city-wide Electric Vehicle Charging, and endorse the approach for assessing bids for the LEVI tender¹ in order to award contract to the GM Authority's chosen supplier in the new year.

Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan – Update on Progress

The committee was scheduled to receive an update report on the Manchester Active Travel Strategy and Investment Plan (MATSIP) and progress to date on delivering schemes and objectives set out in the Strategy. The MATSIP sets out a coherent approach to delivering measures to enable active travel, by which the council means walking, wheeling and cycling, as part of the overall approach to achieving sustainable transport, zero carbon and regeneration objectives.

The MATSIP sets out the significant benefits of active travel investment across a range of policy areas including public health, clean air and zero carbon. It sets out the overall target to make walking the natural choice for short journeys and to double cycling's mode share by 2028. It sets out four objectives which underpin this overall target, with a series of objectives and commitments to deliver them.

The report included an update on cycle hangars. Nine hangars have been installed in six wards: Levenshulme, Withington, Old Moat, Whalley Range, and Chorlton. Each hangar can store six bicycles, and operates on an annual membership basis.

The report also included an update on school streets. A School Street is a road outside a school with a temporary restriction on motorised traffic at school drop-off and pick-up times. Seven primary schools in Manchester currently have a permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) which allows them to operate their school street on an ongoing basis, and an eighth is currently operating their School Street via an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (eTRO) which lasts until July 2026.

Since July 2024 the council has been implementing a programme of speed limit reduction from 40mph to 3o mph on eight roads across Manchester: World Way, Middleton Road, Moseley Road, Wilbraham Road, Greengate, Styal Road, Kingsway, and Mancunian Way.

The committee was scheduled to consider and comment on the information in the report.

Manchester's Direct Emissions Report

The committee was scheduled to receive a summary of the most recent Manchester's Direct Emissions Report, which will be published by Manchester Climate Change Agency (MCCA). It covers the city's direct, energy-related emissions data for 2023, along with a provisional forecast for 2024, and is based on the latest data released by the UK Government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Manchester's direct emissions continued their downward trend in 2023, with a 5% reduction compared to the previous year. This means the city emitted 1.79 million tonnes of CO₂ (m tCO₂), in line with the national picture of gradual decarbonisation. Since 2005, Manchester has cut its direct emissions by 48%.

The committee was scheduled to note and comment on the content of the paper.

Overview Report

The committee was scheduled to review the overview report, which included the recommendations monitor, a summary of key decisions relating to the committee's remit, items for information, and the committee's work programme.

The report included a recommendation from 22 July 2025 that the Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods write to the relevant secretary of state to request that the Neighbourhood Compliance Teams have access to Business Rates information to ensure business owners can be easily identified, particularly when businesses change hands.

The report also included a recommendation from 2 September 2025 that the final Framework 2025-30 and Adaptation Plan include information in regard to the work undertaken by health partners across the city to reduce their carbon emissions as these are key partners, comparable to TfGM and education in scale, and that the final Framework 2025-30 and Adaptation Plan included explicit information relating to the £22bn investment needed between 2025-2038 to reach zero carbon by 2038.

The committee was scheduled to discuss the information provided and agree any changes to the work programme that are necessary.