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UK Local Elections 2026
23AUG

Craig puts £20m into high streets

2 min read
19:09UTC

Greater Manchester's new mayor launched a £20 million Good Growth High Streets Fund in Middleton on 10 August, nine days into the job.

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PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

Greater Manchester's mayor committed £20 million to high streets in her second week.

Bev Craig launched a £20 million Good Growth High Streets Fund on Monday 10 August, announcing it on a visit to Middleton in Rochdale borough 1. Local businesses and community groups will bid for high street projects when applications open later in 2026, and a taskforce sits alongside the money. She had been Mayor of Greater Manchester for nine days.

The speed comes from the plumbing rather than from urgency. Routing the money through the combined authority's existing growth programmes avoids creating a new statutory vehicle, which is what would otherwise push an announcement past a budget cycle. Craig also arrived without a manifesto event to spend, having won a mid-term contest triggered when her predecessor became prime minister , and mayors in that position buy visibility with capital allocations.

The mayor of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) directs transport spending, sets up Mayoral Development Corporations to fund large regeneration sites, holds the Fire and Rescue budget, and exercises the police and crime commissioner powers over Greater Manchester Police, including appointing its Chief Constable 2. Roughly a quarter of the electorate turned out to fill that job on 30 July, with the result declared the next day on second preferences under the restored Supplementary Vote .

Putting the first money into the outer districts rather than the city centre is a choice about which Greater Manchester the mayoralty is seen to serve. Middleton sits in Rochdale, one of the ten boroughs whose leaders sit on the combined authority alongside her, and the bidding process puts her first political test in the hands of applicants from those districts rather than of officers at the centre.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Greater Manchester has a directly elected mayor, currently Bev Craig, who leads the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, a body that ten boroughs, including Manchester, Salford, Bolton and Rochdale, jointly run together. The mayor's office controls spending on transport, housing, economic development and adult skills, but not on schools, which stay with individual councils and the national government. Craig announced a new £20 million Good Growth High Streets Fund on 10 August, unveiled in Middleton, a town within Rochdale borough, with a taskforce set up alongside it. Local businesses and community groups will be able to apply for money from the fund once applications open later in 2026.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority's devolved powers cover transport, housing and planning strategy, economic development, adult skills and health and social care integration, but not schools, which remain under individual borough councils and central government funding rules.

That division is why Craig can launch a £20 million high streets fund financed through the mayoralty's economic development remit, but could not use the same office to fund a school building programme without a different funding route entirely.

The fund's launch in Middleton, in Rochdale borough, rather than in central Manchester, also reflects the combined authority's structure: the mayor represents all ten boroughs equally, and a high-profile spending announcement rotating out to a smaller town signals that the fund is intended to reach beyond the conurbation's core.

What could happen next?
  • Meaning

    The fund sits within the mayor's economic development powers, not the combined authority's much larger transport budget.

  • Opportunity

    Local businesses and community groups across all ten boroughs, including outside central Manchester, will be eligible once applications open.

Sources:Tendring District Council·UK Parliament·ITV News Anglia
Mentions:Bev Craig →Greater Manchester Combined Authority →Supplementary Vote →Greater Manchester →
First Reported In

Update #15 · Reform bleeds councillors, wins by-elections

Tendring District Council· 12 Aug 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Craig wins Manchester in its first second round
Craig's fund launch follows directly from her 30 July election as mayor.
Occurred 30 Jul 2026
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