Helping to Shape Manchester’s Environmental Future

Helping to Shape Manchester’s Environmental Future

Helping to Shape Manchester’s Environmental Future
20 October 2025

Manchester City Council has recently released its draft Local Plan for consultation, and TEP is proud to have played a key role in shaping the city’s environmental policies.



The Environment and Social Infrastructure chapters highlight the vital role of nature and open spaces in city life, from supporting health and wellbeing to improving resilience against climate change and flooding. Policies on green and blue infrastructure, biodiversity, and urban greening put the natural environment at the heart of Manchester’s future development, and ensure natural spaces remain central to the city’s growth.


TEP’s Evidence Behind the Plan


TEP led several foundational studies that informed these policies, working with partners Mersey Rivers Trust, Groundwork Greater Manchester, Lancashire Wildlife Trust and City of Trees who contributed local expertise and consulted with local communities, politicians and environmentalists.

Our studies were:


🌿 Managing Manchester’s Trees:
An assessment of the city’s tree stock and canopy cover, providing ward-by-ward guidance for tree protection and new planting. The study included a nostalgic look back at tree planting initiatives in the city over the last 100 years.


🌿 Our Rivers Our City:
Mapping river valleys and waterways, identifying opportunities for ecological restoration, climate resilience, and improved public access; all measures to help Manchester become a ‘Sponge City’.


🌿 Biodiversity Net Gain Study:
Predicting the likely demand for biodiversity units from the city’s ambitious growth plans and identifying Council-owned land that could become a habitat bank.


🌿 Urban Green Factor Study:
Providing practical guidance for integrating nature-based solutions into new developments, ensuring that growth enhances biodiversity and climatic resilience.


🌿 Open Space Assessment:
Working with the Local plan team to produce webmaps to help them analyse Open Space needs.


Our Arboriculture, Land Management, Landscape Design, Geospatial, Ecology, Planning and Heritage teams collaborated to deliver these studies, providing a broad-ranging evidence base for policies designed to enhance green and blue infrastructure, improve ecosystem services, and ensure Manchester’s future development is sustainable, resilient, and nature-positive.

Fran Hesketh, Technical Director and Founder of TEP, said:

“Contributing to the city’s environmental strategy is a tremendous privilege. Our multi-disciplinary collaboration ensures that our research supports both people and nature, shaping a greener, more resilient Manchester.”

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TEP is proud to be partnered with the award-winning initiative Time for Geograph y, whic h showcases the importance of geography and the diverse careers it can lead to. Time for Geography is a free, online education platform reaching schools and universities across the UK. Through a series of engaging video resources, it brings geography to life in the classroom, connecting academic learning with real-world challenges such as sustainability, climate change, urban planning and environmental management. Our contribution to the initiative forms part of the platform’s Careers Collection, where our team shares insight into the varied and rewarding pathways geography can open up. These resources are designed to help students understand how their studies translate into professional roles, offering a clearer view of the opportunities available within the environmental sector. We’re delighted that this collaboration has been recognised with a Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award , which celebrates the careers-focused videos and resources developed to guide students towards further education and careers in our industry. With an audience of over 2.5 million this year, Time for Geography is a powerful example of how education and industry can come together to inspire future talent, showing how a subject studied in the classroom can lead to meaningful, real-world careers. For many of our colleagues at TEP, that journey began with a simple interest in geography at school. Today, that interest has grown into careers spanning ecology, arboriculture, heritage, planning, landscape design and environmental management. By sharing these experiences, we hope to encourage the next generation to see geography not only as a fascinating subject, but as a pathway into work that makes a tangible difference. We’re proud to support an initiative that is helping shape the future talent pipeline for our sector, and to inspire the environmental specialists of tomorrow. Learn more and watch our video: 
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TEP was commissioned by Natural England to carry out a detailed chalk scrub study across the Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve.
14 April 2026
TEP is proud to be partnered with the award-winning initiative Time for Geograph y, whic h showcases the importance of geography and the diverse careers it can lead to. Time for Geography is a free, online education platform reaching schools and universities across the UK. Through a series of engaging video resources, it brings geography to life in the classroom, connecting academic learning with real-world challenges such as sustainability, climate change, urban planning and environmental management. Our contribution to the initiative forms part of the platform’s Careers Collection, where our team shares insight into the varied and rewarding pathways geography can open up. These resources are designed to help students understand how their studies translate into professional roles, offering a clearer view of the opportunities available within the environmental sector. We’re delighted that this collaboration has been recognised with a Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award , which celebrates the careers-focused videos and resources developed to guide students towards further education and careers in our industry. With an audience of over 2.5 million this year, Time for Geography is a powerful example of how education and industry can come together to inspire future talent, showing how a subject studied in the classroom can lead to meaningful, real-world careers. For many of our colleagues at TEP, that journey began with a simple interest in geography at school. Today, that interest has grown into careers spanning ecology, arboriculture, heritage, planning, landscape design and environmental management. By sharing these experiences, we hope to encourage the next generation to see geography not only as a fascinating subject, but as a pathway into work that makes a tangible difference. We’re proud to support an initiative that is helping shape the future talent pipeline for our sector, and to inspire the environmental specialists of tomorrow. Learn more and watch our video: 
1 April 2026
Changes to the Planning Inspectorate’s Procedural Guide will update how planning appeals are handled in England for applications submitted after 1st April 2026.
14 April 2026
TEP is proud to be partnered with the award-winning initiative Time for Geograph y, whic h showcases the importance of geography and the diverse careers it can lead to. Time for Geography is a free, online education platform reaching schools and universities across the UK. Through a series of engaging video resources, it brings geography to life in the classroom, connecting academic learning with real-world challenges such as sustainability, climate change, urban planning and environmental management. Our contribution to the initiative forms part of the platform’s Careers Collection, where our team shares insight into the varied and rewarding pathways geography can open up. These resources are designed to help students understand how their studies translate into professional roles, offering a clearer view of the opportunities available within the environmental sector. We’re delighted that this collaboration has been recognised with a Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award , which celebrates the careers-focused videos and resources developed to guide students towards further education and careers in our industry. With an audience of over 2.5 million this year, Time for Geography is a powerful example of how education and industry can come together to inspire future talent, showing how a subject studied in the classroom can lead to meaningful, real-world careers. For many of our colleagues at TEP, that journey began with a simple interest in geography at school. Today, that interest has grown into careers spanning ecology, arboriculture, heritage, planning, landscape design and environmental management. By sharing these experiences, we hope to encourage the next generation to see geography not only as a fascinating subject, but as a pathway into work that makes a tangible difference. We’re proud to support an initiative that is helping shape the future talent pipeline for our sector, and to inspire the environmental specialists of tomorrow. Learn more and watch our video: 
1 April 2026
Changes to the Planning Inspectorate’s Procedural Guide will update how planning appeals are handled in England for applications submitted after 1st April 2026.
30 March 2026
TEP was commissioned by Natural England to carry out a detailed chalk scrub study across the Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve.