Local people will get first dibs on new housing under a radical pledge by the region’s Conservative mayoral candidate Sean Anstee.

Coun Anstee, who is also leader of Trafford council, is planning a £1bn housing fund to build thousands of homes on former industrial land across Greater Manchester - with a proportion reserved for people who grew up in the area.

He believes the move will help solve our growing affordable housing crisis, as well as supporting younger generations to get onto the housing ladder.

The proposal is contained in Coun Anstee’s mayoral manifesto, launched this lunchtime at the Bury Black Pudding Company alongside Tory local government secretary Sajid Javid.

That promises to see smart motorways rolled out across the entire length of the M60, a review to see whether a futuristic ‘Hyperloop’ system could be introduced and plans to spend millions more supporting the region’s struggling social care sector.

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As part of key pledges on housing, a Tory mayoralty would see him push the government for a beefed-up and more flexible housing fund for Greater Manchester, bringing it to three times its current total of £300m.

So far that fund - controlled by the region’s 10 council bosses - has seen more than 1,500 homes built since it was set up three years ago, but has attracted criticism for focusing largely on city centre apartment blocks that in many cases are not classed as ‘affordable’.

But Coun Anstee wants to add in all the available public cash for building social housing and other homes - currently held by the government, councils and national agencies - so that Greater Manchester can bring it under one masterplan.

That would include new social housing and affordable homes for rent, depending of the needs of each area.

As part of that developers would be asked to reserve a percentage of new homes for people in the local community for a set period of time. It is understood the property sector has responded positively to the idea in recent months.

He also pledges to clamp down on developers who buy up land and sit on it without using it for new homes, by demanding new powers to force them into using planning permission after a certain length of time.

As mayor he would also use compulsory purchase powers to buy up stalled projects or find ways to nudge developers into building.

Meanwhile any development on green belt - a move Coun Anstee supports in order to hit the region’s housing targets - would not take place until the correct roads, schools and other support was guaranteed to be in place.

The manifesto also promises to use new powers to improve the region’s struggling social care system.

That would use the region’s ‘apprenticeship levy’, a new locally-controlled tax that from April will see large companies - and public sector organisations - pay a charge towards apprenticeship training, expected to raise around £25m a year.

Coun Anstee would use a proportion of that specifically to train up people in social care, an area that is desperately short of money and increasingly of staff, so that councils no longer have to spend millions on expensive agency workers.

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The manifesto also pledges parity for mental and physical health - although health does not come under the remit of the mayor and clinical commissioners largley hold the purse strings.

Trafford council’s leader, one of the youngest in the country, said he had already ‘spent the last four years battling Westminster politicians and their party-political games’ in order to create a new political system that is controlled from Greater Manchester, rather than London.

But he said better housing, transport, health and social care were all needed if the region is to take advantage of that.

Coun Anstee promises to explore new potential routes for the Metrolink - highlighting Stockport as an example - plus a more joined-up bus network no longer dictated by the existing operators, as well as ensuring the new #smart motorway’ system around the conurbation is completed and widened out to include the whole of the M60.

He also pledges to investigate the idea of a ‘hyperloop’ - a futuristic new type of transport that effectively sucks trains along through a tube at the speed of a plane.

The manifesto also suggests a range of measures intended to cut pollution and improve the environment, including 10,000 new trees to screen motorway traffic, better routes for cycling - such as safer junctions and a new bike rental scheme - and twice the number of existing electric car charging points.

Pointing out 8m people live in the radius of Manchester city centre - a population as big as Hong Kong - Coun Anstee said the mayoralty was a chance for the region to take its place on the world stage.

“We should be shouting about the great things we have here, saying to the world ‘look what we have to offer - Greater Manchester is open for business,” he said.

“The creation of a mayor for Greater Manchester and the transfer of many powers from Westminster is that great opportunity.

“I believe we can make Greater Manchester world class and I’m excited to have the opportunity to show, in this manifesto, how we can use these new powers to improve our city region and its towns.”