When Sir Richard Leese became Manchester's council leader in 1996, Jon-Connor Lyons was still in the womb. Now, the 26-year-old Labour councillor from Newton Heath will have the final say on what gets built across the city.
The city centre councillor is set to be the youngest person to run the council's planning committee, overseeing major decisions that will shape Manchester's future. He spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about how he intends to use this influence, what he wants to see built across the city in the years to come and where he thinks the town hall has got it wrong in the past.
A highly-respected local government leader, Sir Richard Leese oversaw the city centre's transformation during his 25-year tenure in the top town hall job, leaving a rapidly rising skyline as his legacy when he resigned in late 2021. But, in more recent years, Manchester council has recognised that the city needs more affordable housing.
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First elected in 2018, Jon-Connor says he and other more recent arrivals on the council have successfully pushed the town hall to take this issue more seriously. Now, in his new role, he wants to hold developers to account too.
The Piccadilly ward councillor, who describes himself politically as 'soft left', has been selected as the new chair of the planning committee which means he will run the meetings where the biggest development decisions are made – and, for the most contentious ones, when the votes are tied, he will have the final say. The chair's casting vote was only used once during the four years Coun Basil Curley held the post and only once under David Ellison before him.
But Jon-Connor intends to use his influence to push for more affordable and social housing at every opportunity. He wants to see more housing of all kinds built across the city, as well as more modern offices with co-working spaces.
He also hopes that building more hotels will reduce demand for Airbnbs and short-term lets in the city. Most of all, he wants to see more council housing being built in places like the Northern Quarter and in south Manchester too.
For him, it's about 'equality of opportunity'. And, as someone who rents in the city centre himself, he understands first-hand what it means to be priced out.
"I'd absolutely love a new flat in Piccadilly ward, but I can't afford it," he says. "If we want people to stay in Manchester, we need affordable homes for them.
"I've always said we need to be building affordable and social housing in every part of the city. In the city centre, you don't need to have a car and you've got so many jobs you can access.
"There are so many opportunities. So having council housing in places like the Northern Quarter or south Manchester is really important in terms of equality of opportunity.
"There's only so much affordable housing being built in south Manchester and the city centre. We want to see it built everywhere."
Soon after taking over as leader 18 months ago, Labour's Bev Craig oversaw an overhaul of the council's housing strategy. It says Manchester must build 36,000 new homes in the next 10 years – and 10,000 should be affordable.
Upon the plan's publication last year, Labour councillor Gavin White, who is Manchester's executive member for housing and development, said that the council must 'push' developers to pay for more affordable housing and hold them to account when they claim they cannot. But the council is no longer simply relying on developers to deliver the type of housing the city needs.
Last year, after initial plans were approved under Leese's leadership, the local authority launched a new housing development firm called This City. Through it, the council will build a mix of affordable homes and properties for sale - using one to pay for the other - starting in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter.
The local authority is also selling land on the cheap to social housing providers with an aim of 500 affordable homes being built on these unused sites. For his part, Jon-Connor has promised to 'call out' developers who do not do their bit.
A long-held council policy that 20 pc of all large-scale developments should be affordable - or a financial contribution towards affordable housing elsewhere is paid - was 'never being met' when he was first elected, the councillor says. He believes that things are better now, with affordability firmly on the agenda.
But developers - including those behind some of the city's largest skyscrapers - are still often exempt from affordable housing obligations. Exceptions can be made to the council's policy if meeting it would mean the project yields less than a 20 pc profit, making it 'unviable', according to government guidance.
Coun White, who is responsible for setting the council's development strategy, hopes that Jon-Connor will hold developers to account on affordable housing. "We're really keen to get as much affordable housing as possible," he said.
"That's something we're pushing for as a council. The challenge is viability.
"Developers will try and use that to get out of some of their obligations. We have to hold them to account and the committee has a role to play in that."
Planning committees - which are made up of councillors - are 'quasi-judicial', which means, like juries in court, their decisions must be made on the basis of national rules and local policies. But Jon-Connor wants to make sure residents and councillors' concerns are considered throughout the planning process too.
The chair's casting vote was only used once by each of the last two men who held the role. In Coun Curley's case it was the controversial 55-storey student skyscraper dubbed the 'tombstone' which was approved with the casting vote.
In former councillor Dave Ellison's case, the vote on an Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff-backed development in Hulme was tied with the chair choosing to reject the scheme. Jon-Connor must make decisions based on material planning considerations.
But he told his Labour colleagues who selected him for the position - which was uncontested - that he'll always want to side with local residents and the councillors who represent them. Speaking after he was voted in, he said: "I'd always be sympathetic to the residents and local councillors in their concerns if there's any split vote and listen to them throughout the process as well, but I'd ultimately consider all representations, listening to all parties concerned."
Coun Lyons will chair the next planning committee meeting on Thursday (June 1).
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