Green Party Candidate Pledges to Revitalise Greater Manchester High Streets

Green mayoral candidate Geraldine Coggins vows to use Compulsory Purchase Orders to take over empty shops, create an Empty Shops Team, and establish a Community Development Fund to revive Greater Manchester's high streets.

Brit Brief 07/07/2026 04:23

Green Party Candidate Pledges to Revitalise Greater Manchester High Streets — Green Candidate Pledges to Revitalise Manchester High Streets

Green Party mayoral candidate Geraldine Coggins has pledged to take over empty units in a bid to kickstart Greater Manchester’s high streets. Ms Coggins says she will use Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) to take over empty properties if she becomes the city-region’s next leader.

Empty Shops Team and Town Centre Partnership Agreements

The academic has promised to set up an Empty Shops Team to co-ordinate CPOs through Town Centre Partnership Agreements. She will also use those agreements to coordinate efforts to revive the local economies of struggling towns.

Community Development Fund

The Greens plan to set up a Community Development Fund to help councils and community groups buy vacant properties. Ms Coggins says the move would enable all ten boroughs to make best use of the powers they have and take the focus away from Manchester city centre.

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Criticism of Labour's Model

The Greens say the plan would “fix the failure of Labour’s developer and profit first model which has concentrated growth in Manchester city centre with unaffordable luxury flats”. A Green press release quoted 2025 Centre for Cities analysis of 62 of the UK’s largest cities and towns which found Wigan to be the eighth highest in terms of proportion of empty high street shops, with 16.3 per cent of shopfronts lying empty.

Candidate's Statement

Ms Coggins said: “As mayor, I will make our high streets once again the beating heart of our communities. I will create a new task force to give the boroughs the expertise and co-ordination they need to use their powers to take over empty shops and to end the scandal of land banking. The mayor's investment fund will be used to help communities buy empty spaces to make all of our high streets the economic, social and cultural hearts of our towns. No more empty shops. People over profit. I will end the failed Labour model which puts developers profits above people and communities.”