'Who needs 21 barber shops?': the £6bn plan to transform north Manchester's 'forgotten about' neighbourhoods

North Manchester is about to change forever, with £6 billion earmarked for a programme of "widescale" regeneration across its neighbourhoods and high streets.

The investment is aimed at reversing the enormous upheaval experienced in communities north of the city centre after the closure of factories and mills that once powered the local economy. New council leader Garry Bridges said: "We have to recognise that north Manchester still has communities with unacceptable levels of deprivation and areas that are still recovering from major deindustrialisation and stagnation that ripped the heart from local economies and left thousands of people workless."

What is being built?

The centrepiece is the £1.5 billion rebuild of North Manchester General Hospital, which has served Crumpsall and beyond for more than 150 years. A new outpatient centre will be built first, with work starting in 2027 and finishing by 2029. The main hospital build follows over nine years.

MFT chief executive Mark Cubbon said: "Our new hospital won't just create the modern facilities our patients, colleagues and communities deserve. It will support long-term improvements in health outcomes and kick-start inclusive economic growth."

The £4 billion Victoria North project will see 15,000 new homes built across the next decade over 155 hectares of brownfield land from Victoria Station through Collyhurst and up to Queens Park. New social homes have already been built in Collyhurst, and St Catherine's Wood, a new urban park off Collyhurst Road, has opened. A new Metrolink stop at Sandhills is planned. Once finished, Victoria North will add 40,000 people to the city.

What about the high streets?

Moston Lane will receive £90 million for new homes, a public square, an NHS GP health centre and new shops.

Tia Rhodes, 21, has been going to Ray's café on Moston Lane since before she was born. Now she works there, and she is worried.

"It used to be really nice around here, we had different shops to go to and a little community, but now it's not," she said. "There are lots of barber shops on Moston Lane now. Someone seriously counted 21 on this road. Who needs that many hair shops? It's left people with no reason to come here anymore."

Ray, 65, who runs the café, said: "For me, at the moment it's going down. I've never seen it like this before. If they are changing things, then I'll be happy."

Newton Heath, Cheetham Hill, Harpurhey and Gorton will also see major investment.

What about community funding?

Manchester is getting £100 million from the Government's Pride in Place scheme. A large chunk will go to north and east Manchester, including Clayton, Openshaw, Newton Heath, Miles Platting, Harpurhey, Moston and Crumpsall. Resident-led neighbourhood boards will decide how the money is spent.

Shirley McKenna, 61, from Newton Heath, said: "There has been a feeling about being forgotten about in this area. This money should be spent on parks for the kids, for making repairs, things like that."

Bridges described it as "one of the most ambitious