Eamonn Boylan: Commission for Housing in the North’s impact still being felt

In 2016 after 18 months of consultation and research, the NHC published the Commission for Housing in the North report.

We speak to Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and one of the commissioners, about why the report is still relevant today, and how it has influenced the current Greater Manchester housing strategy.

Eamonn talks about how the Commission was a precursor for levelling up, which argued for flexible government investment which was place-based not one size fits all.

He believes it’s important to have single voice for the North which reflects the different characteristics of the area.

He says: “The nuances and complexities of the housing challenge we face are fundamentally different from the rest of the country. It’s important we have that voice that doesn’t pretend there’s something homogeneous about the North, but that does respect there’s something quite unique about the component parts of the North. The challenge is different, so the response needs to be different.”