Grove Village

A complex regeneration project which successfully combines large-scale refurbishment with substantial physical remodelling of a housing estate in Manchester.

Plymouth Grove is a 1970s estate of over 1,000 properties.  By the 1990s it was run down with failing shops, vandalism and high and rising crime levels. A priority for regeneration for Manchester City Council, it became the first housing project to be funded by the government through the private finance initiative (PFI).

A local steering group selected the Grove Village Consortium to lead an ambitious programme to create a new mixed-tenure, well managed and well served urban neighbourhood. This included selective demolition, new build, refurbishment, environmental works and neighbourhood management.

The major features of the masterplan, by PRP, are:

• creation of a new ‘village centre’ off Stockport Road with shops and community facilities;
• introduction of a traditional street pattern to allow both pedestrians and cars to move through the previously inward-looking estate; and
• a green route, designed using HomeZone principles.

It is a long-term project but there are already major improvements to the quality of housing, to community safety and to the commercial viability and security of inner estate shops.

The Grove Village Consortium took over the management of the public areas of the estate in March 2003. Manchester City Council retains ownership of homes not purchased through right-to-buy and those residents remain council tenants.