The greenbelt backlash in Andy Burnham's backyard

As the prime minister promises good growth in every postcode, his local Labour authority has axed all the employment schemes in its planning blueprint

When the developer Tritax Big Box first sought to build part of a vast freight hub on Wigan's greenbelt, the Labour-led council was supportive.

Intermodal Logistics Park (IPL) North would be a future source of "substantial high-quality employment", said Wigan council in its draft planning blueprint last year.

This summer it had a sudden change of heart.

"This is not economic development," Labour councillor Jenny Gregory told colleagues in September, after the authority voted to formally reject the site's removal from the greenbelt, leaving its future uncertain. "It's the industrialisation of an area that cannot absorb it."

The loss of nearly two dozen councillors to Reform UK in May's local elections, combined with vocal local opposition to greenfield development, has prompted a sharp about-face in the borough where Andy Burnham is now an MP.

Wigan, a former industrial powerhouse that sits between Manchester and Liverpool, had long prioritised logistics because of its proximity to the M6 and M62.

But in August its leadership scrapped all four of the major employment sites from its draft local plan, featuring distribution, manufacturing, tech space and housing.

Rob Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester, said the situation captured the policy trade-offs facing Burnham, who as prime minister has promised devolution but also "good growth in every postcode", including through "re-industrialisation".

"It's also a microcosm of the political problem he inherited," Ford added.

Labour lost hundreds of councillors to Reform and the Greens this year, destabilising the party's power base and leaving Labour councillors fearful of next May's elections.

Anxiety over industrial development has amplified in Wigan since one imposing warehousing scheme drew national attention last year for its proximity to residential housing.

The sheds at PLP-operated Astley Business Park, which are up to 18 metres in height and cover a space equivalent to around five football pitches, were likened to "cruise liners" and images of them towering over homes and gardens went viral.

Labour went on to lose all but one of the candidates it fielded to Reform in Wigan, where a third of seats were up for grabs.

Around 500,000 square metres of employment space and housing have now been dumped from its proposed 13-year local plan, which will form the framework for future planning applications.

Gregory, whose ward is most affected by the Tritax plan, told Labour colleagues last month that any planning application from the developer would be treated as "hostile".

But the proposal has national significance, including for Burnham.

ILP North would comprise 767,000 sq m of logistics and associated employment space, focused around a major new rail hub intended to free up freight movement across the north west.

As Greater Manchester mayor, Burnham requested around £200mn from the Treasury to move rail freight from Manchester to the new hub.

"That money [would be] spent at ILP North," he told the FT in March last year. The plan would also free up space for the redevelopment of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium.

But the funding was refused and Burnham subsequently expressed "major concerns" about the scale of ILP North.

ILP North would also span two mayoralties, at a time when his government has put devolution at the heart of its agenda.

Around two-thirds of it would sit in St Helens as part of the Liverpool City Region freeport on the largest employment site available. Liverpool's mayor Steve Rotheram, a close friend of Burnham, has championed the scheme.

The rest would spill over into fields in the village of Lowton, Wigan, around a mile from the prime minister's home.

Gareth Edwards, a local resident who has campaigned against the scheme, said Lowton's roads were already swamped by HGVs thundering through from the nearby M6.

"It really is on our doorstep," said Edwards of the Tritax proposals, adding that residents would be "shocked" by the scale of what is proposed. "It's good that Wigan has sat up and reacted."

Burnham, who met with residents to hear their concerns about a year ago, wrote to the relevant local authorities in January in his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, expressing "significant concerns" about ILP North's scale and impact on local communities.

The council's original draft local plan, published in 2025, prioritised "new high-quality employment sites" that take advantage of the borough's location on the M6, the East Lancashire Road into Manchester and a planned "growth corridor" between Wigan and Bolton.

Its subsequent U-turn has left investors weighing up the tension between local, mayoral and national policy.

Two of the four employment schemes pulled from the plan are owned by northern development giant Peel. This summer Wigan Council also objected to the group's master plan for Gibfield Park, a large greenfield development that has been in train for over a decade.

The 35,000 sq m mixed-use scheme is part of the Northfold growth corridor, which has already been allocated funding from Burnham's Good Growth Fund.

Peel did not respond to requests for comment.

Dane Anderton, Wigan Council's Labour cabinet member for economic development and regeneration, said the local authority was focused on "the right type of growth in the right places".

The council would focus on building out former industrial sites, he said, in line with the government's vision and to ensure that "necessary infrastructure is delivered first".

Tritax said its planned hub "would strengthen rail freight capacity between the north-west, UK ports and wider markets" and support the government's target to increase rail freight by at least 40 per cent by the end of next decade.

"We note Wigan's decision to formally oppose the proposals for ILP North rail freight interchange and are considering what the decision means for the project," it said.

Tritax is still expected to submit a formal planning application next year, with the decision automatically escalated to Angela Rayner, housing, communities and local government secretary, because of its national significance.

The saga reflects the balancing act facing Burnham between national growth ambitions and a volatile political landscape leading into next May's local elections, said Ford.

"The risk is he fails both tests," he added, "due to the tensions between them."