Salford Rise

In March 2020 Salford City Council and University of Salford jointly appointed the English Cities Fund as developer partner for the Crescent area. A Development Framework for the area was subsequently approved by the council in January 2021, setting out the vision for the future of the area and ambition of the partners over the next 10+years. You can view this ambitious new Development Framework here.

It is a very ambitious development programme, which covers 99 hectares of city centre Salford. The area is comprised of six distinct development zones, including the Crescent Innovation District, which sits adjacent to the University of Salford and has potential to deliver over 1 million sqft of new commercial and innovation floorspace over the next decade and beyond in addition to new homes and significant new areas of public realm. The Crescent Innovation District has huge potential not only for Salford but the wider region. Through its focus on research, collaboration between industry and academia on the innovation and sustainability agendas, we have a unique opportunity to provide the skills and future job opportunities for our residents and businesses in the industries of the future.

In October 2021, the council secured £13.17m from the Governments Levelling Up Fund to deliver ‘Salford Rise’ - a key infrastructure and public realm project within the Crescent Innovation District. Salford Rise represents the first step in our work to unlock the potential of the Crescent Innovation District. The project will involve the removal of physical barriers (such as security fences) between the communities to the north of the Crescent area and their replacement with new walking and cycling connections and large areas of new, high-quality public realm, trees and other planting and public spaces which will host a range of events, community projects and provide spaces for the community (both residential and business) to relax and connect. Importantly, it will also deliver a new landscaped podium structure over Frederick Road, providing a safer connection over this busy highway while also joining up the two sides of the Innovation District.

The aim of the project is to better connect communities to the north of the Crescent Innovation District with the wealth of employment and education opportunities and leisure assets across the wider Crescent area to the south, including the University Campus, Peel Park, the Meadow, Salford Museum and Art Gallery and the Working Class Movement Library. The project will also help to unlock new development plots across the Innovation District, and set a new design quality benchmark for the area, helping us to attract new, innovative industries of the future to Salford to collaborate with the research experts at the University, who are delivering their new North of England Robotics Innovation Centre on a site directly to the west of Salford Rise.

Salford Rise is not only a critical early project for the Crescent Innovation District, as the wider Crescent area also forms a key component of Salford’s Innovation Triangle and the Innovation Greater Manchester proposal – our blueprint for translational innovation between Greater Manchester and Government which will catalyse inclusive economic growth and support the UK in achieving its levelling up ambitions.